OFF-BROADWAY REVIEW
THE ATHEIST
Reviewed by David Sanchez
Published 2008-11-12
"Color. Spice. And flavor." These are the words uttered by Augustine Early to describe a sizzling piece of news. These very words could be used to describe the words in the play "The Atheist" as well as Campbell Scott's scintillating performance.
The simple set is reminiscent of Krapp's basement. A desk with a bottle of scotch, a backdrop screen, piles of journals, videotapes, and a camera. There is far less distance between Early and his audience as compared to Beckett's character. We are getting a much more lucid narrative and the tone is far more confessional.
Augustine Early informs the audience that at some point in his youth he decided to combine "craft with talent" and so became a journalist. Mr. Scott plays him like a car salesman full of repressed glee and macabre joy. Instead of used cars though, he is selling stories wholesale both coming from the world and then at some point through his own invention and manipulation. It's like "sucking marrow from the bone." This is the actor at his most unhinged, and it's a marvel to witness.
Ronan Noone's words are full of mordant wit and the highest form of irony. It presents highly challenging themes, and to say that this play is dark would be an understatement. To leave out the fact that it is one of the most poetic of shows both in content and style would be an injustice. This monologue play is funny and insightful. It digs into the nihilism of media saturation - "I gave her the truth!" Early tells us with fierce anger - of our post Post-modern world where everything is surface. Hence, the title of our play and the problem of our character "The Atheist."
During any viewing of a play, there is a moment where I, and perhaps the audience as a whole, will have a moment of clarity. A moment of truth. My moment of clarity in this play came when Early describes to us a time where he is outright lying in a new report (or is he?) in order to further his career and to be noticed.
It's this constant shuttling back and forth between the truth and the lie that is so fascinating. Early is aware of this hypocrisy, revels in the hypocrisy. His name makes someone think that he's always one step ahead both in how he's on top of the story and also how he is aware of other's transgressions and guilt long before they themselves might be aware of it. He is rarely caught off guard, excavating through the dark of the characters he talks about, and ultimately the truth and light come out. He's an Abrahamic hero sacrificing his Isaacs not for the sake of God but for the sake of these people's own happiness. Or at least he would have us think. In the end though, he is absolutely spent, and we the audience must decide what his fate will be.
This is heavy material written by Noone with the deftest touch and performed by Scott with such a lightness and joy that you can't help but get wrapped up in it. Despite the heady issues involved, this is a highly personal play, as well. This is absolutely one of the best plays and performances I've seen so far this season. Anyone with the courage to watch this intrusion into the darker part of people's psyches will be rewarded.
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