Review: The Christians

From the moment Kurt Johnson enters the theater, hair slicked back, Bible in hand, and begins shaking hands with audience members, it’s evident that this is his play. He owns the role of Pastor Paul, a preacher at the top of his game but one about to face a major crisis of conscience, in Lucas Hnath’s The Christians. Hnath’s play, a hit of the 2014 Humana Festival, is structured like a church service, complete with choir and sermon. It is so realistically staged—set designer Samantha Reno puts the pulpit in front of a magnificent stained glass window backdrop—that some may feel, at play’s end, that they’ve just been sermonized. This can make some uncomfortable. Indeed, the play intends to cause discomfort with its examination of theology today, of the clash between traditional Christianity and contemporary faith shaped by individual experience. Over the past 10 years, Pastor Paul has built his ministry from a modest storefront to a major edifice. The growth was often financially taxing, but on the day he can announce that all the church’s debts are paid, the reverend delivers a sermon that will challenge his congregants (Tara Sissom as Jenny, particularly), his church hierarchy (the great Greg Alexander as Jay and Darian Dauchan as associate pastor Joshua), his wife (Margaret Laurena Kemp) and himself. The outcome is both unforeseen and to be expected.