A Case for the Existence of God at PTC

I had heard great things about PTC's production of A Case for the Existence of God but I didn't have a chance to see it until last night. I'm glad I was finally able to get to it because this existential exploration of an unlikely friendship that provides hope in a precarious world is very powerful and I was incredibly moved by it. Keith (Jon Hudson Odom) is Black, gay, well educated, sophisticated, and comes from an affluent background. Ryan (Lee Osorio) is white, straight, uninformed, aimless, and comes from a working class background. He works at a yogurt factory in Twin Falls, Idaho and is currently going through a divorce but he hopes to purchase land that once belonged to his family in order to make a better life for his daughter. He reaches out to Keith, a mortgage broker who has a daughter at the same daycare as his daughter, to help him complete the purchase but there are many obstacles because he has a poor credit history. While working together, they begin disclosing personal details and it turns out that both men have preconceived ideas about the other. Keith sees Ryan as the popular and confident boy who bullied him in high school while Ryan believes that Keith lives a privileged life free from worry. However, Ryan reveals that had a dysfunctional childhood with parents who were addicts and Keith eventually confides that he could lose his foster daughter to a biological relative. They forge an uneasy bond over their shared sadness but it is this bond that ultimately provides them with hope for the future when they both suffer devastating setbacks. Both Osorio and Odom give highly nuanced performances, particularly in the way they communicate so much about their characters with just their body language and mannerisms (the play opens with both men sitting in silence for several minutes and this gives the audience more information than pages of dialogue). I especially loved Odom's portrayal of a panic attack because it is very realistic and I also enjoyed Osorio's drunken reaction to a piece of music. I had tears in my eyes when the two characters are finally able to comfort each other because the actors have such a believable rapport in this scene. All of the action takes place in a cramped cubicle at Keith's brokerage firm with just enough room for a desk and two chairs and I really appreciated the subtle changes in the position of the chairs (and the even subtler changes in wardrobe and lighting cues) to denote the changes in their relationship. The set evolves, as do the characters, during the conclusion and I think the final message is really beautiful. I will definitely be thinking about this for a long time and I highly recommend it. Unfortunately, there are only two more performances left (go here for tickets).