The Christians a sensitive and humane study of divisions in a megachurch

The Christians

Wild Rice
The Ngee Ann Kongsi Theatre, Wild Rice @ Funan
April 11, 7.30pm

Religious schisms are aplenty in history, since any religion is as diverse as its practitioners. American playwright Lucas Hnath offers a rare human-level view of a doctrinal split in his brisk one-act play set within a megachurch, with the spotlight on one charismatic pastor.

Director Glen Goei – who spoke to The Straits Times about how he almost devoted his life to full-time church ministry – choreographs a pitch-perfect Sunday service. Audiences are welcomed in with an ongoing pre-show set by an ever-present seven-piece choir and three-piece band who are all in matching cerulean and leading the congregation in worship.

All in all, Goei offers a faithful and faultless dramaturgy of the megachurch that never once tips into histrionics.

Pastor Paul (Shane Mardjuki), who has led and transformed the storefront church into a swanky thousand-seater over two decades, has finally paid off the church’s debts and celebrates with a seismic sermon: “We are no longer a congregation that believes in hell.” The merry faces of his colleagues, especially that of the associate pastor Joshua (Timothy Wan), slowly sour as they realise the import of the pastor’s pivot.

The associate pastor calls for an impromptu referendum, but the magnetic Paul survives and axes Joshua. Yet the rift in his church continues deepening and, throughout the next 90 or so minutes, Paul reckons with things he was too busy to consider – the limits of his charisma and the human dimensions of faith.

Wild Rice’s staging is boosted by a superb cast. Mardjuki, who has recently played more comic roles with the company, dons a three-piece suit and offers a mature character study of a man in crisis as his revelations come into conflict with his confidantes and congregation. Wan, too, relishes a powerful moment of confession when he confronts the pastor about his upbringing.

The other characters in the play are mostly sketched out in relation to Paul – his wife Elizabeth (Oon Shu An), a congregant (Zee Wong) and a church elder Jay (Julius Foo). Foo has practically only one closed-door speaking scene, but he tiptoes around his anxieties about Paul’s sermon with such persuasive characterisation that he leaves an indelible impression throughout the play.

While Pastor Paul acts upon his divine revelation – which he received on a toilet bowl, no less – his congregants have far more material matters on hand. An explosive moment in the show probes if, in the revised doctrine, the genocide-maker Adolf Hitler goes to heaven. Paul, once a man of pure conviction, could turn only into a muddy puddle of reassurances.

Hnath, in his stage directions, has every character speak through a microphone throughout the play – whether or not they are preaching in a cavernous hall or arguing in the bedroom. It is a choice that the playwright has justified as blurring the boundaries between private and public spaces, but that decision to keep the microphone in limbo between the diegetic and extra-diegetic has the effect of muting performances, preventing private moments of two-hander intimacy from blooming as mics keep passing hands.

The action takes place in an American church, but it might as well be a Singaporean one. Set designer Wong Chee Wai has bathed the walls and flooring in light wood tones – Japandi, anyone? – and centred the action around two large crosses, one glowing in orange hues in the background and another dangling from the roof. The story, too, absent of cultural context outside the church is believably universal.

Admittedly, the ending feels abrupt. Hnath’s script is fully successful in creating the dramatic world of the immediate fallout from Pastor Paul’s sermon, but one is itching to see how his character lives with that fallout.

How does a man like him live in the aftermath after the dust has settled? The audience is denied that gratification, and so the play appears more like a vignette or a parable about inclusivity than a journey with a protagonist.

What is masterful in the script and the staging is that it never plays sides – no one on either side is laughed at and everyone is rendered with a full palette of empathy. It is an example of how Singapore theatre can engage with religious topics in ways that are sensitive and humane.

The play may not be eligible for the SG Culture Pass, but this is a play that Singaporeans should see.

Book It/The Christians

Where: Wild Rice @ Funan, Level 4, 107 North Bridge Road
When: Till May 2; 7.30pm (Tuesdays to Fridays), 2.30 and 7.30pm (Saturdays), 1.30pm (Sundays)
Admission: $40 to $95
Info: str.sg/hBKg