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QuickTake:
Despite its heavy title, “A Case for the Existence of God” is not about theology. It is about a different kind of belief: that there could still be good in the world somewhere, and two male friends can find each other when they need it most.
Two men sit across from each other in an office in Twin Falls, Idaho. They could not be more different.
Ryan is white and working class, with a job at a yogurt plant. Keith is Black, gay and an office professional with a job as a mortgage broker. They’re separated by a desk, as well as an impenetrable barrier for many men: being honest with their feelings.
The two men and desk are the entire world of the play “A Case for the Existence of God,” a 2022 play by Samuel D. Hunter that opens at Eugene’s Oregon Contemporary Theatre this week, with Eugene performer Chauncey Mauney playing Ryan and Portland actor Jonathan Thompson as Keith.
Despite the heavy title, “A Case for the Existence of God” is not about theology.
“Don’t let the title scare you away,” said Craig Willis, the producing artistic director of Oregon Contemporary Theatre and the director of the production.
It is about a different kind of belief: that there could still be good in the world somewhere, and that two people can find each other when they need it the most.
“I don’t think of God as being something dogmatic or rooted in what people decide it means,” Mauney said. “It feels more like the hand underneath us that’s holding us up.”
The work is an examination of resilience in difficult times through the fragile, bravado-flecked lens of male friendship. The two bond over a common point: Both are fathers to 16-month-old baby girls. Both — via divorce and custody issues for Ryan and foster-to-adoption bureaucracy for Keith — are on the brink of losing their daughters.
“I think we share a specific kind of sadness,” Ryan tells Keith early on, when he realizes their situations run parallel. “You and me.”
Going on an emotional journey, without moving an inch
The script presents a unique physical challenge for Mauney and Thompson. Ryan and Keith, face-to-face over a table, remain seated and unmoving for the bulk of the play. Per stage directions, “unless otherwise stipulated, no character stands.”
The table, thanks to lighting and set design, stands in for different settings — like Keith’s office, where Ryan asks for help taking out a mortgage on a home; a playground where the two fathers watch their daughters interact; and Keith’s home where they share far too much whiskey.
Mauney and Thompson had to flesh out an entire emotional relationship while confined to rolling chairs (admittedly “swanky” ones) and tethered to a desk. Micro-movements are loaded with a heavier granular weight, what Thompson called an underutilized constraint in theater.
“I think sometimes we don’t trust the audience to follow something if there’s stillness,” he said. “When there’s stillness, the audience becomes more sensitive to any movement. Then all of a sudden, a small movement is a huge deal. It’s a major emotional shift.”
The constraints of the sparse work are what interested Willis in directing the play.
“I read it a few years ago and had been really wanting to grapple with it,” Willis said. “It does present some fun and unique challenges, and it does some of the things I like best, which is pull out your heartstrings and make you laugh and hopefully surprise you.”
Willis had been a fan of Hunter’s plays for a long time. Hunter — an Idaho-raised, New York City-based playwright — is best known for his play “The Whale,” about a reclusive obese man that was later adapted into the film starring Brendan Fraser.
Building a realistic dad friendship
“A Case for the Existence of God” is about a particular type of friendship: a connection struck up between two dads in the same child-care spaces.
Mauney is a father to two young children, and felt that he could relate to Ryan as a man in his mid-30s juggling fatherhood with trying to purchase property.
Thompson isn’t a father, so Mauney lent him two children’s books he remembers reading with his daughter: “Dad By My Side” by the Russian artist Soosh and “I Like You” by Sandol Stoddard. A friend of Thompson’s in Portland gave him some insight into the playground scene, where Ryan and Keith watch as their daughters play.
“To have a child and send them off to play on the playground, it’s like watching a piece of you go run off,” he said, recounting his friend’s advice for Thompson. “You’re like, ‘oh God,’ but at the same time want them to be able to be their own person.”
The actors had to practice intense restraint against casually touching, like a friendly pat on the shoulder, to ensure the play’s crucial moments of physical contact remain unclouded.
Sparse plays centered on two male characters typically see them jockeying for power, like in Suzan-Lori Parks’ “Topdog/Underdog” or Sam Shepard’s “True West.” Added up, “A Case for the Existence of God” is a counterpart to a long-dominant vision of shouty men in theater.
“It’s really refreshing to spend an hour and a half recognizing there’s another side to masculinity. It doesn’t have to be toxic,” Willis said. “There’s strength in vulnerability, and strength in empathy that you can ignore if you just focus on aggression and trying to establish or maintain dominance.”
How to see the play
“A Case for the Existence of God” opens Saturday, April 18, and runs through Sunday, May 3 at the Oregon Contemporary Theatre, 194 W. Broadway, Eugene. Tickets are available online at Oregon Contemporary Theatre’s website, starting at $25, with better seats available for $42 to $52.
