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PICK OF THE WEEK
God’s Man in Texas
Reviewed by Deborah Klugman
A Guest Production at the Blank’s Second Stage
Through September 5.
RECOMMENDED:
Power can be a heady drug – and when mixed with religion even headier still. For example, can a man who perceives himself as a conduit for God’s grace easily relinquish that identity? Maybe not.
That question applies to Dr. Philip Gottschall (Ted Heyck), one of the three intriguing characters in writer/director David Rambo’s astute and articulate drama. Gottschall is a charismatic preacher, who built his Houston mega-church from scratch and whose power and influence now extend beyond the reaches of his huge congregation into the realm of Republican politics.
But the man is getting on. He’s in his 80s, and other movers and shakers within the congregation are making noises that he should retire. In recent months the church has been hosting guest preachers – younger men who have made a name for themselves on the pulpit who might assume the mantle of this aging patriarch.
One of them is Dr. Jeremiah Mears (Brian Letscher), who makes an appearance one weekend as a guest pastor. A vigorous good-looking man who looks like he could have played varsity football, Mears, as portrayed by Letscher, is a web of contradictions – swaggeringly self-confident one minute, edgily anxious the next. The character’s crystal-clear ambition at first sets you up to believe that perhaps the play is going to be about his comeuppance, another drama about a man of God not nearly as sanctimonious as he would have people believe.
But after a wordy if nonetheless involving Act 1 where both Mears and Gottschall demonstrate their sermonizing bona fides, the play takes some unanticipated turns. More than one of these involve the third character, Hugo (Tom Costello), a self-described ex-profligate who’s found salvation working for the church, but whose square foot of redemption is about to be threatened by the seesawing fortunes of the other two.
The interplay among these three makes for compelling conflict and not a little humor, especially from Hugo, a man who can’t help saying what he thinks no matter how hard he tries. It’s also interesting to observe the same competitive macho tensions taking place in a Pentecostal arena as can be seen a corporate boardroom, and the struggle of both churchmen to balance hubris with humility (It’s not easy for either). Both Hugo and Jeremiah have issues with their fathers (a theme which never seems to lose its resonance) and this contributes even more texture to the narrative.
Heyck, with his white beard and portly dignity, seems born to play the aging temperamental Gottschall (He appeared in another production of the same play two years back) while Costello’s twitchy Hugo expertly mines the comedy in the script without ever sacrificing the pathos and humanity of his character. Letscher at first seems ill at ease, but the impression fades as we’re launched into the story and the full scope of Mears’ struggle comes to light.
A guest production at The Blank’s 2nd Stage Theatre, 6500 Santa Monica Blvd. Hlywd.; Fri.- Sat. 8 p.m.;, Sun., 2 p.m.; through Sept. 5. (800) 838-3006, https://godsmanintexas.bpt.me.
