Mosaic Theatre: "Oh God: A Divine Comedy" by Anat Gov

Part of the Mosaic Theatre's Voices from the Changing Middle East Festival, "Oh God: A Divine Comedy" is the story of Ella, a psychotherapist with a grown son who is severely autistic (non-verbal with areas of artistic genius--he plays the cello) who is suddenly confronted with a new patient who says he is God, because, as she discovers, he is God.  And God has a problem.  He is neurotic and has lost his powers.  Over the course or 80 minutes, Ella helps God to come to terms with his neurosis over needing to be loved, but feeling neglected and disappointed by his creation.  Anat Gov (1953-2012) was a leading Israeli playwright who penned 6 major works for the theater and wrote for Israeli television shows for decades.  I was completely unfamiliar with her or her work and that's sort of a hallmark of Mosaic Theatre in DC.  It brings to the stage both new and established playwrights who represent communities and/or ideas that are rarely seen or only given a token spot in most major regional theatre calendars.

A word on the play itself.  This was an ambitious undertaking.  Most of the humor (and there's a good amount) requires a familiarity with the God of the Bible.  The structure overall starts with a sweet introduction to Ella and her son, Lior.  Then Lior is a very incidental character from that point forward slipping in and out quickly a couple of times.  The plot rise begins with Ella not believing her new patient God.  Coming to believe she had God on her couch.  Dealing with her own passive aggressive theism.  Finally, dealing with God's issues, but in a haphazard way until she stumbles upon God's relationship with Job.  Here, she actually makes some interesting observations which she turns into a diagnosis of God's problem.  God then turns the tables on Ella bring up a very painful time in her life.  It ends with God happy and no longer wanting to wipe out all of humanity (did I mention that was his solution to his angst?)  Re-enter Lior and then a minor little miracle involving rain.

Honestly, it was too contrived.  I ended up standing at the trolly station across the street when it was over and two other patrons walked up.  Older Jewish women.  And the one said to her friend, "I think it would have been better in Hebrew".  We chatted briefly, and I think they agreed that Gov took way too long to get to the interesting stuff.

As to the production.  The sets were really quite beautifully rendered.  Mosaic is a relatively new theatre company (this is their fourth season) and by all indications they do not have the sort of endowment and/or resources as the many other well established companies in the DMV.  They do a nice job with what they have.  As to the actors.  Cameron Sean McCoy is new to the DC region and played to part of Lior with a single-minded integrity.  Every nuance of an adult with severe non-verbal autism was lovely rendered without being over-wrought or caricature-ish.  I think the power of his portrayal left me with another complaint about the structure of the play.  So strikingly tender and under-represented character on the stage to be used as a predictable "prop" for an emotional coda at the end was really undignified.  Kimberly Schraf as Ella, sealed for me my impression of her as a consummate journeyman actor.  She gets the lines.  She a moderate range of expressions to indicate emotion.  But only occasionally do you honestly feel like she inhabits the truth of what she is saying.  The story is told without a flaw, but it never rises to a level of authenticity beyond the story.  Mitchell Herbert, on the other hand, becomes the part he portrays to the point where there are times when the dialogue feels insignificant.  He's a wonderful actor.  There were moments between the two of them where I almost felt that he had lost his groove over trying to not out pace her performance's momentum.   I think I probably enjoyed it as much as possible given the structural weaknesses inherent in the script.