Review: Boston cast extends a "Hand to God"
Photo courtesy Glenn Perry Photography
26 January 2017 ∙ Originally published in The Huntington News
Not many people would feel comfortable standing on a stage and directly challenging an audience to reconsider what they believe in without letting them off the hook. Luckily, Tyrone, the foul-mouthed star of “Hand to God,” is a hand puppet with no such reservations.
Without ever batting a glued-on eye, he forces everyone around him to confront their inner demons in a SpeakEasy Stage production that opened earlier this month and stars a recent Northeastern graduate and two former teachers.
Originally produced Off-Broadway in 2011 before a Tony-nominated Broadway premiere in 2015, Robert Askins’ play takes place in a Texan church youth group and tells the story of Jason, a young boy whose father recently died. After his mother, a church volunteer, asks him to perform in a puppet show, he falls victim to demonic possession when his hand puppet, Tyrone, takes an evil life of its own. It would appear, however, that Tyrone and Jason’s minds are not that far apart.
“All five of the characters in this play are coming from places of profound loneliness and sorrow. They’re all really broken people looking for connection and that fact alone makes for great pathos, but also great humor,” director David R. Gammons said. “Seeing people who are that desperate can be moving, but it can be absolutely hilarious. The lengths that people go to when they’re desperate and the stakes are high, it can be hilarious.”
The cast features Northeastern 2016 alum Dario Ladani Sanchez as Timmy, a troublemaking teen, and Marianna Bassham as Margery, Jason’s beleaguered mother. Aside from their work in the Boston theatre scene, Gammons and Bassham have both worked with Sanchez at Northeastern. Bassham taught him last fall and Gammons directed him in the “Alien vs. Predator” piece that took over Ryder Hall in April.
“There was potential for awkwardness but I think having that personal relationship with Marianna beforehand actually made it a little bit easier to shake out,” Sanchez said of playing opposite his former teacher, with whom his character begins a relationship. “Because there was that inherent awkwardness in the scene, there was less expectation around becoming so comfortable so quickly, and it actually became easier to get comfortable.”
The relationship he speaks of is one of many points of contention within the brazenly irreverent production, one which constantly matches comedy and tragedy, sex and hatred and right and wrong to hilarious effect.
“While it certainly satirizes religion, it’s not mean-spirited,” Gammons said. “Yes, it’s an absurd and over-the-top play. And yes, it asks a lot of deep questions about faith, religion, right and wrong and good and evil. It doesn’t make a mockery of religion, which makes it accessible.”
Tyrone’s doesn’t let his misguided goal of helping Jason gain confidence stop him from joyfully destroying everyone else’s lives, profanely calling out characters’ insecurities, doubts and secrets.
“What is the formula for comedy? Pain equals comedy?” Bassham asked. “Watching somebody go through something awful can be funny and if we’re identifying with it, all the better. It’s so liberating playing somebody whose behavior in response to their unhappiness is completely inappropriate and outrageous.”
Though the characters have their core beliefs undoubtedly shaken and Tyrone rampages on against his Godly nemesis, Bassham considers the work to be more an exploration of how we view and use religion.
“The playwright had been a preacher and comes from a religious upbringing and is now kind of working it out in response to that,” she said. “I wouldn’t say it’s just anti-religion but it asks these questions about good and evil and the roles they play for regular people on a day-to-day basis.”
“Hand to God” is in performance at the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts through Feb. 4.