The Wilbury Group opens its fifth season with the Rhode Island premiere of This Beautiful City by Steven Cosson and Jim Lewis. Cosson is the artistic director of The Civilians, a New York theater company that develops their work by interviews, research and community residencies, combining journalism and art to explore current issues.
The play, which premiered in 2008 at the Humana Festival of New Plays, explores an historical moment in history in Colorado Springs, Colorado. This beautiful city, set in the Rockies, is home to one of the most evangelical populations in the country. Colorado Springs has been the site of the national headquarters for over 80 different religious organizations, including James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, and was nicknamed “the Evangelical Vatican” and “The Christian Mecca.”
By juxtaposing the leftist citizens against the evangelicals, we see the fall from grace of two Christian leaders. One, the pastor of the New Life Church and the other, the pastor of the Emmanuel Missionary Baptist Church, during a mid-term election and a ballot initiative that would either allow gay marriage or outlaw it.
The set represents a revival tent and the projection of real historic media events blends perfectly with the script. The difficulty of playing in the round is that actors must project backward and while some did it well, many in the ensemble didn’t, often causing the audience to strain to hear what was being said. Some of the many monologues were performed with underlying music, also making them difficult to hear.
The music, while catchy, was hard to understand because the band played louder than its actors could sing. If the band is electric, then the actors should be wearing microphones. Or the band needs to turn it down. A lot. And while the harmony is mostly on point, the singing isn’t, with some songs seeming out of actors’ ranges like in “End Times” performed by Clara Weishahn. However, the song “Whatever,” performed perfectly by Julia Bartoletti, kept us laughing.
As expected from The Wilbury Group, This Beautiful City’s cast is made up of strong actors who play multiple roles, perfecting the evangelical creepy Christian smile. Bartoletti, Wilbury newcomer, has a strong voice and stage presence; Mycah Hogan plays the New Life Associate Pastor like he grew up in a church; Melissa Penick’s Trail’s Guide girl and Demon ousting Christian were spot on. Other mentionables were Andrew Iacovelli as TAG Pastor and Clara Weishahn as the liberal and the trans* woman. Siobhan Reddy-Best, in her Wilbury debut, believably plays a young woman struggling between her family and her beliefs.
The play itself tells an interesting story, but includes some scenes that leave the audience confused. At the end of Act One there is a sacrifice in the woods that doesn’t seem to connect to anything before or after. During Act Two, the song “Take Me There” feels like the finale (but it isn’t) and a sermon by the new minister of the Emmanuel Missionary Baptist Church made me feel like I was really stuck in church (when will it end?).
Some technical problems aside, this is still a play you must see. With so many theaters stuck doing the classics and the same old plays over and over, when a community theater like The Wilbury Group brings us something new and fresh, we must join them, in community, under the revival tent.