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Opined April 2, 2006
THE GOD COMMITTEE by Mark St. Germain, Director: Kevin Moriarty
With: Maha Chehlaoui (Dr. Keira Bank), Peter Jay Fernandez (Dr. Alex Gorman), Gerrit Graham (Father Charles Dunbar), Larry Keith (Dr.
Jack Klee), Ron Orbach (Dominick Piero), Brenda Thomas (Nurse Nella), Amy Van Nostrand (Dr. Ann Ross)
Set Design : Beowulf Borritt; Lighting Design: Tyler Micoleau; Costume Design: David Murin
Lamb's Little Theatre, 130 West 44th Street ( 6th Avenue/Broadway) 212-239-6200
The worst thing about this production is getting to your seat. The Lamb’s Theatre is currently tucked in under a mess of scaffolding, and the Moscow
Cats Theatre seemed to have gotten there early with its posters that take up most of the building’s façade. There is also no signage when you enter, nor are
there any helpers barking out kindly orders to guide you through to the Little Theatre or up to the Main Stage. Finally there is a volunteer at a table set up to
provide information on organ donation when a program insert would do just as well.
That being said, once you get to your seat you are in for quite a good show. Beginning with the set by Beowulf Borritt . A hospital board room as sort of
an operating theatre with us as the observers.
This is the story of the God Committee – the people who decide, say, if Mickey Mantel should really get that new liver. Like politics and sausage – the
process is not a pretty one and the playwright has gone some lengths to make it palatable. By and large he succeeds.
Each character comes to the table dragging the past full of hurts and traumas to the table and tries to make decisions that are the best for the organ. Where
will the wanderer find the best home? With the 68-year-old woman who damaged her first donated with a suicide attempt? The man who, other than
refusing to lose weight, has been a model of good behavior? The rich man’s son whose father seems to be pulling more that one string at the hospital?
And will the heart actually get to the hospital on time or will the St. Patrick’s Parade, bad weather and bridge traffic defeat them all? The play occurs in
real time which heightens the urgency of the action and our involvement in it. I was engaged in this roller coaster ride the entire time and was pleased that
the play’s conclusion was a complete surprise.
It seemed to me, however, that the play is too short with the result that some of the characters lack dimension – the angry doctor and the angry visiting
resident in particular. It may well be that this is an accurate representation of such meetings, but a play is a version of reality, not reality itself. We
understand the story right away, so our appetite turns next to the characters. We want to be in on the ground floor of their emotions, but for the most part
the characters who clash in this board room do so out of spontaneous combustion. Their relationships are so set they are nearly rusty. Enter angry. Stay
angry. Exit angry. Not much wiggle room there. Or breathing room.
Still, most of the cast is excellent and knows what it means to have a good tale for the telling in the palm of their hand. They don’t ask a lot of questions.
They just get the job done, and done very well. It’s a fine ensemble, an excellent story, and worth the bother of finding the damn place.
©2006 Tulis McCall