Hidden camera, the male gaze and faith aswirl

Playwright Anna Ouyang Moench gets to the point right up front in her script: “Is that a f—ing camera?” Mimi (Lauren Garcia) asks.

She and three other Korean American girls are rooming together while on a mission trip in Bangkok, and the camera they’ve discovered, as KyungHwa (Sharon Shao) struggles to say aloud, was “sort of down, behind the, beside the ... the toilet. Pointing ... up.” It doesn’t take them long to figure out its owner.

Moench’s play, now in a Shotgun Players production directed by Michelle Talgarow, pits the ideals of evangelical Christianity against the realities of its practitioners, revealing just how far the power of the patriarchy extends when it’s buttressed by faith. Moench’s dialogue zings, and it captures the way kids can about-face from the deadly serious to the superficial and silly. “Man of God”: 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 4; 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, Sept. 8-10. Through Oct. 2. Free-$46. Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. 510-8416500. www.shotgunplayers.org

Robbie Sweeny / Shotgun Players