The Civilians, a theatre company with a stellar history of crafting investigative theatre pieces, has a new winner in The Unbelieving, a study of religious leaders who secretly harbor doubts. Nine such practitioners, plus an empathetic interviewer, are represented in the company’s latest foray, directed by company founder Steve Cosson. Though subtler than Pretty Filthy, the company’s 2015 musical based on a survey of workers in the adult entertainment business, this piece is every bit as outré. Both professions require a talent for “faking it.” The question of which population faces the greater challenge remains up for grabs.
Nina Hellman plays Linda, a role based on Linda LaScola, a qualitative research consultant who, with co-author Daniel C. Dennett, conducted a four-year investigation reported in the 2013 book Caught in the Pulpit: Leaving Belief Behind. Playwright Marin Gazzaniga tweaked the contents and conducted some further interviews.
Hellman radiates a sweetness which encourages confessions, even ungodly ones. Six actors, some doing double duty, play the nine doubting Thomases (the roster includes two females). The renegades, self-outed or still on the fence, appear sequentially, then later as an ad hoc self-help group. The faiths in question – literally in question – run the gamut.
David Aaron Baker has a central role as Adam, a seeming good old boy who attends his first session looking as nervous as a spy on the lam. He’s terrified that his congregation might catch on – and with good reason, because his marriage and very livelihood are on the line. Adam might seem a bit of a hick at first glance, but he has done his homework. He claims to have read sixty books looking for an answer after doubt began to erode his faith: “My reason was, if God is good, he’s big enough. He can handle any questions I’ve got. Well, he didn’t measure up!” It’s fascinating to track Adam (he pops up periodically in the course of this succinct, 80-minute play) as he flirts with the notion of exposing himself on Facebook.
Another standout is Richard Topol as Sherm, a questioning Orthodox rabbi who, in a touching moment at the end of a session, manages to flout a cultural taboo by shaking Linda’s hand. Joshua David Robinson holds forth eloquently both as Mohamed (a former Muslim Imam from the Ivory Coast) and as Dennis (a former charismatic Evangelical preacher): he switches accents and affects as easily as one might slip out of a choir robe.
Truly, the whole cast is superb: it spans Jeff Biehl (a Jimmy Swaggart wannabe) Sonnie Brown (former Catholic nun/Episcopal priest), and Dan Domingues (7th Day Adventist/Mormon). Each makes us feel for the closeted equivocators – no easy feat in front of a sophisticated New York audience likely to have leaped the fence some time ago.
Megachurch hucksters aside, many a worker in the faith business likely went into the field with a heavy helping of idealism, and many religious institutions provide essential services – food kitchens, counseling – that hard-strapped communities can’t easily afford. Should the doubters renounce their theist identification in the name of honesty? Or continue to do their best to fulfill the job title and pose as unquestioning conduits of God?
