The emotional and sexual confusion of early adolescence partly forms the story of The Saviors, but Bubba Weiler’s tender new drama rises beyond mere teen angst to develop a higher theme about compassion. Premiering on Monday, Atlantic Theater Company’s production is gracefully staged by Jack Serio at the Linda Gross Theater, which was built as a church and now neatly accommodates a contemporary American play set mostly around the sanctuary of a modest Roman Catholic church.
Early morning Mass is over and young teen altar boys Michael (Ivan Howe) and Paul (Julius Rinzel), still in their white surplices, are tidying up the sanctuary before heading off to class. Best friends, they brandish candle snuffers like Lacrosse sticks and roughhouse while talking over their possible confirmation names. Michael, an anxious, clingy soul obviously more absorbed by Catholic traditions than Paul, suggests they take each other’s name. Their conversation is interrupted by a scruffy stranger, Julian (Stanley Simons), who sheds his backpack at the foot of the altar, drops to his knees in prayer, and helplessly weeps. Julian improbably claims to have been an altar boy at this same church a dozen years before. The uptight Michael wants to divert the homeless guy to a public shelter, but as a blizzard approaches, kindly Paul finds troubled Julian a secret refuge inside the church.
The other individual in the drama, which spans a few days and runs 90 minutes, is Judy (Crystal Finn), a desperately cheerful lady in her middle years, recently widowed, who keeps busy volunteering in church activities. An initially droll scene sees Judy and Michael as the only ones attending a youth group session; their awkward chat meanders into the teenager’s recognition of his passion for Paul. Michael can’t balance such awareness with his Christian upbringing, saying, “Like I keep thinking, okay, what would Jesus do, but it never says. He’s a kid and then all of a sudden he’s thirty. So now I don’t know what to do.”
[Read Melissa Rose Bernardo’s ★★★★☆ review here.]
Painfully aware of these new feelings that Michael cannot express, Paul at first simply tries to deflect the issue by claiming to no longer believe in God. Eventually the drama witnesses Paul’s generosity towards Michael and Julian, as well as some less empathetic behavior from Judy, who harbors sorrows of her own. The play gently considers one’s need to secure a lifeline, or at least some comfort, be it through people, faith or other means.
Serio makes smart use of his designers in support of the drama. Set designer David Zinn presents a realistic, relatively unadorned, Roman Catholic sanctuary complete with a crucifix, statuary, stained glass and typical liturgical necessities. To better concentrate the viewer’s attention on the dialogue at crucial points, Stacey Derosier, the lighting designer, illuminates the space with only a dusky reddish glow. Leah Gelpe, the sound designer, contributes a loud pre-show recording of youthful voices singing or speaking responses to the mass; later, the play is punctuated with unsettling metallic effects.
The director draws lovely performances from the actors, especially observed in the easy, believable interplay between Ivan Howe and Julius Rinzel. They contrast as chatty, troubled Michael, desperate to hang tightly to his friend Paul, a goodhearted fellow already thinking about distant horizons. Although Stanley Simons’ character as a scarcely reformed junkie borders on cliché, the actor grounds his Julian with a sense of deep misery. Crystal Finn’s depiction of Judy poignantly suggests someone who recognizes she’s been mostly a failure in life and yet eagerly keeps pressing on to do her best.
Not quite a year ago in Brooklyn, newcomer playwright Bubba Weiler and relatively new director Jack Serio delivered the acclaimed Well, I’ll Let You Go, which subsequently moved on to an Off Broadway run at Studio Seaview. Their latest collaboration yields The Saviors, yet another compelling drama and fine production that deserve a longer existence.
