Just in time for the holidays, God has returned to Earth for only the second time in recorded history.
This time, the creator of all heaven and Earth appears for our entertainment and enlightenment, via the Arizona Theater Company. And in David Javerbaum’s hyper-humorous "An Act of God," the Almighty is in fine company: She comes to us in the form of stage and television star Paige Davis, who’s directed by Oscar-nominated actress and director Marsha Mason and joined by James Gleason, one of the stars of a recent Broadway production of this same show.
In this relentlessly wry one-act by the former executive producer of "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart, the Maker is here to put right mankind’s misunderstandings about Her writing and Her agenda for Earth. She does so by grumping about the Ten Commandments, many of which She rewrites on the spot.
“I’ve grown weary of the Ten Commandments in the same way Don McLean has grown weary of ‘American Pie,’” She explains, before launching into a lot of liturgical hee-hawing adapted from Javerbaum’s bestselling book "The Last Testament: A Memoir by God."
She’s brought along a pair of angels: Gabriel played by Gleason, who recites from a gorgeous Gutenberg Bible, and Michael performed by Max Lawrence, who wanders the audience pretending to take questions from us until he begins asking his own, which challenge The Father’s mean-spirited overlording: “Why is there suffering?” Michael demands. “Where were you during the Holocaust?”
There’s cuteness on the pristine and handsome set: Paige, chosen as a vessel for God’s message, “has no idea she’s here.”
There are a surprising number of self-referential jabs at the Lord’s fondness for death and mayhem. There are comic revelations, too: She would like it if athletes and singers would stop thanking Her for winning games or having talent.
The Creator confesses to having only once answered a prayer, which was actually posed as a question: Why do bad things happen to good people? “To even out the good things that happen to bad people,” of course.
The comic conceit here is our mutual use and misuse of Biblical belief and faith in Christ, about which The Man Upstairs is gently admonishing, because our imperfections are really messing up His plan.
But the genius in Javerbaum’s writing isn’t his ability to riff on the evils of sin or the absurdity of the story of Noah’s ark. It’s that it’s never clear whether we’re being asked to take any of this seriously.
It’s possible to hear this ornery oration as either a clever criticism of faith and religion, or a comic rehash of the irrefutable truth of God’s existence. That’s some kind of miracle.
"An Act of God" continues through Dec. 4 at the Herberger Theater Center, 222 E. Monroe St. Call 602-326- 6899 or visit www.arizonatheatre.org.
Robrt Pela’s reviews appear in the Phoenix New Times.