Riverside Theatre bringing big questions to spotlight

No one thinks twice about women turning to each other for advice and bonding over shared experiences. It’s still harder for men to do that in our society.

But in “A Case for the Existence of God,” coming to Riverside Theatre in Iowa City from Jan. 19 to Feb. 4, two new fathers in small-town Idaho strike up a conversation at their children’s day care, and discover a kind of solace in their sadness.

One grew up poor, the other with money. Both are facing difficult situations.

Ryan, a yogurt plant worker, is trying to secure a mortgage to build a house for his daughter to give her the kind of life he never had. Keith, a mortgage broker, is trying to navigate the challenges of adopting the infant girl he’s been fostering.

Barrington Vaxter of Iowa City plays Keith, and Scot West of Chicago steps into Ryan’s role. Both actors are Riverside veterans, but West is returning after about a decade away, having connected with Knight while attending a 2022 production of “The Weir” in Riverside’s new space downtown.

Playwright & UI grad

The notion of God doesn’t overtly play out in this script by Samuel D. Hunter, an MFA graduate of the University of Iowa, MacArthur Fellow “Genius Grant” winner, and the writer of the 2022 Oscar-winning film “The Whale,” said Adam Knight, Riverside Theatre’s producing artistic director and director of the two-person drama.

“Sam Hunter’s work, to me, is really infused with spiritual consideration. … I think he’s writing plays like no one else today. He’s writing plays about characters that are almost never seen on stage — if they ever have been seen on stage. And I think he’s writing about the ongoing need for a connection bigger than ourselves. And whether that’s through spirituality, or through personal relationships, this need to connect has not gone away in modern life.”

Hunter, who grew up in a religious environment, often sets his scripts in his home state of Idaho, “and in these off-market, small cities and towns, where I think a lot of the conversations often cross paths with spirituality and religion,” Knight said. “And so I think that God really permeates into a lot of the conversations of the play, though … the play is not about the church. And it’s not really about someone seeking religion.

“It’s really about two people forging a friendship in difficult circumstances.”

Ryan “doesn’t have a well-paying job. He has struggled with that. And he comes from a troubled home. And so the system that often dictates whether someone is mortgage-worthy, or risk-worthy is not in his favor.

“He meets this man at the day care who’s having his own set of challenges, is fostering a child, hoping to adopt her, and running into the challenges of the adoption system.

“Both (men) need each other, but they also realize that they share a certain type of sadness,” Knight said.

“This touches on the minutia that so many of us are dealing with right now. …

“This play is about modern life,” he added. “It’s about tension and anxiety that seems to be existing at a constant low level, through so much interaction, and how sometimes, if we’re not careful, that can boil over and take us over.”

Setting

The action is set in an 8-foot-by-8-foot cubicle, which serves multiple purposes.

“Audiences are used to seeing us really use the width and depth of Riverside’s new stage,” Knight said. “This is a much more intimate kind of jewel box of a play. That said, within that world, there are some surprises, and some space is not quite as static as we think.

“There’s an interesting fluidity of space where the cubicle becomes one of their apartments, becomes a playground, so it’s incredibly theatrical, in that a space that we think is one thing starts to morph into something else.

“And time is very fluid in this play, too. I think in some ways, the fluidity of time and space speaks to the presence of God in this play, speaks to there being a higher thing that these events are live within and a greater web of connectedness.”

Rather than bringing their own belief systems into the action, Knight and the cast do talk about their personal lives in the rehearsal room, but are “trying to let the play guide us in terms of where God lives in this world,” Knight said.

“And I think that’s actually part of the beauty of the play. It allows the artists and the audience to fill in their own experiences and their own takeaways from these events, rather than dictating to the audience the case for the existence of God.”

Knight feels the end result will be thought-provoking for viewers.

“I hope that they look at these two men, and these series of scenes, and reflect on what it means and reflect on the world that we live in now,” he said.

“This play asks a lot of big questions, but it doesn’t provide specific answers. I think that’s what great theater can do, and I think that audiences will come away knowing what the answer is for themselves.”

Comments: (319) 368-8508; diana.nollen@thegazette.com