Have faith in ‘Susan & God’

Published 6:45 pm Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Ever been around somebody who just saw the light? Who out of nowhere suddenly discovered the Creator or Buddha or Tao or Allah or the meaning of the universe or whatever you call the collective wisdom that keeps the rest of us going?

And who insists you bare your soul then and there? And won’t settle for anything less?

See Lisa Peretti. She’s got the fanaticism you don’t want to face.

Peretti is the Susan in Taproot’s hilarious “Susan and God” by Rachel Crothers and is an absolute triumph: funny, witty, charming, vulnerable, likable and a pain in the neck.

Enter Susan having just returned to her friends in the Hamptons on Long Island, 1937, after an extended stay in Europe to get away from her alcoholic husband and their daughter, whom she dumped in a boarding school. But Susan is changed.

While away, a certain Lady Wikham hooked up with Susan and exposed her to an English social strata of open-minded free thinkers. Confession is good for the soul was their mantra. Confess and be enlightened. Susan took it in, made it her own and brought it back with her, in spades. Confess. Confess. Confess. Susan is driving her friends crazy.

Mind you, the hornets’ nest Susan stirs up is anything but convert material. They are the idle rich that “The Great Gatsby” couldn’t fit into and that Noel Coward had such fun throwing darts at. Boredom filled with empty-headed conversation, meaningless distractions and pre-occupations with trivia pretty much sum them up.

There is the almost-divorced wife carrying on with her husband-to-be (Heather Hawkins, Kevin Brady).

There is the many-times-married stick-in-the-mud, absurdly jealous of his latest wife, a young thing who gets along famously with her dashing man-friend, an unattached and struggling actor (Nolan Palmer, Alicia K. Anderson, Ryan Childers)..

There is the bland but morally decent, secret admirer who carries the torch for Susan’s alcoholic husband (Nikki Visel, Don Brady) and the lonely, little, pathetic daughter, in nerdy bifocals, with braces on her teeth, who pines away in hopes of mommy and daddy getting back together (Austen Case).

The dialogue is witty, scintillating. The supporting cast does a yeoman’s job. Scott Nolte’s directing sets a brisk pace and manages an engaging sense of suspense. Overall, though, it’s Peretti’s hysterics playing off her underlying vulnerability that make the messianic complex an understandable and empathetic phenomenon.

This is a comedy of manners and morals in the tradition of G.B. Shaw topped off with a virtuoso acting performance. A great night out.

Reactions? Comments? E-mail Dale Burrows at entopinion@heraldnet.com or grayghost7@comcast.net.