These puppets are definitely not meant for children
If Avenue Q crossed the line, this show speeds by it with a middle finger in the air
Don’t be fooled by the Arts Club’s publicity for Hand to God. They’re advertising the play as “an irreverent comedy,” with a poster of a cute little devilish hand puppet.
It’s a comedy all right, but about as dark as they come. And “irreverent” is an enormous understatement. Hand to God is demonic. It’s also ferociously funny, outrageously vulgar, and superbly staged and performed in Stephen Drover’s production at the BMO Theatre Centre.
You might remember, a few years ago, all the talk about the explicit puppet sex scene in the Arts Club musical Avenue Q. The puppet sex in Hand to God makes Avenue Q look like, well, a puppet show. This one is definitely adults only.
Nominated for five Tony Awards in 2015, Robert Askins’ play has a serious dramatic core. It’s set in a Texas church basement where Margery (the spectacular Jennifer Lines), suffering badly from the recent death of her husband, barely holds herself together trying to organize three teens to do a Christian puppet show for a Sunday service.
One of them is her nerdy son, Jason (Oliver Castillo). Unable to get over the loss of his father, Jason copes by creating an alter ego of the hand puppet he names Tyrone. Trouble is, Tyrone takes on a personality of his own. In contrast to gentle Jason he’s a foul-mouthed smart arse who becomes increasingly devilish, claiming to want to help Jason toughen up.
As evil Tyrone wrestles hapless Jason for the possession of his soul (with Castillo doing a terrific job voicing both wide-eyed Jason and his nasty puppet, often at top speed), Margery loses it. She freaks out, trashes the church basement, has rough sex with bad boy Timothy (Mike Gill) and gives gentle Pastor Greg (Shekhar Paleja) the finger.
The good pastor, whose strongest epithet is “son of a biscuit!”, adds another complication when, like Tim, he expresses his love for Margery and she accuses him, in the strongest possible terms, of hypocrisy. Margery’s second freakout is even more violent than her first, and Lines imbues it with such powerful emotional reality that we can hardly laugh — though it’s also brutally funny.
But the climax, so to speak, comes after Tyrone and Jason have gone all Exorcist on the others (with the help of Jeff Harrison’s excellent lighting effects and James Coomber’s spooky sound).
Isolated in the basement, Jason is visited by sweet Jessica (Julie Leung), the third of the church puppeteer kids, who brings her own female puppet. And somewhat arbitrarily, but with great gusto and imagination, the two puppets get it on in a variety of positions while Jessica tries to talk Jason down. Director Drover lets the sex go on too long, but it’s pretty amazing.
The resolution of the dramatic plot seems a little glib, as blood and agony struggle with puppet sex and f-bombs galore for centre stage.
But if you don’t mind puppet porn, salty language and sacrilege, see Hand to God.
It’s the hottest play of the season.