The Saviors

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The Saviors, Bubba Weiler’s second play to be produced in New York in the past year is a coming-of-age play about how to live your life as well as loss of faith. All of its four characters are lost souls and each is trying unsuccessfully to save the other. Tenderly directed by Jack Serio who also directed Weiler’s acclaimed Well, I’ll Let you Go, the play’s two teen altar boys, acted by Ivan Howe and Julius Rinzel, are actually 13 and 14, giving the play a verisimilitude few productions have.

Paul, aged 14, and his longtime friend Michael, aged 13, are altar boys who set up for early morning mass each day and lock up the church associated with their parochial school in a small Midwest town.  On their minds are next week’s confirmations and their going to a local Catholic high school next year term. However, Michael is much more committed to his Catholicism and his relationship to Paul than Paul is to him. When a homeless drifter, a junkie named Julian tries to take refuge in the church during a ferocious snow storm, it is the more liberal Paul who offers to let him spend the night while the more uptight Michael is furious with such a breach of church rules. This encounter leads to Paul’s loss of faith in both religion and his future: maybe he doesn’t have to go to Barnabas Prep or St. Ambrose College only an hour away. In his mind he doesn’t want to end up like all the boring, same people in town.

On the other hand, Michael is having terrifying nightmares and the only person who can comfort him is Paul who seems to be pulling away. He is upset when Paul doesn’t want to pick a saint’s name for his confirmation particularly not liking his idea of taking each other’s names. He also finds it impossible to believe that Julian is from the community and that he was once an altar boy in the same church. And Michael is having trouble with his burgeoning sexuality, particularly his unrequited attraction to Paul.

The fourth character is the only older adult, Crystal Finn’s Judy, the church’s most eager volunteer, the organist and in charge of the youth group to which Michael belongs. A recent widow, she has a secret of her own. It does not seem believable that her son is a missionary in Africa but she can’t send Michael’s contributions to him. Her cautiously tentative attempts to help Michael through his current crises are very well handled by the play and the author.

The problem with the play is that as of now it is a movie or television script with a lot of short scenes that would be movie cuts in a film, photographed from different angles. The play doesn’t build well with scene after scene simply to fill in additional information. The play is both overwritten and underwritten: the two boys speak reams of their lives but tell us nothing of their parents or homelife. Crystal’s life is not revealed until almost the end of the play and about Julian we learn almost nothing at all other than that he is broke and has nowhere to go.

David Zinn’s realistic setting in what was once a church at the Linda Gross Theater, the sanctuary with its altar, statues, lectern and organ, is convincing enough but requires that all the scenes take place there. The play also has too few characters. We never meet the priest or any of the boys’ parents who are sometimes waiting outside we are told. Would a 13 and 14- year-old have the job of locking up the church each night? And in this day and age is it possible to sleep in a church night after night on the sanctuary without a night watchman finding out? In his next play, Weiler needs to fill in the gaps and explain anything that seems out of the ordinary.

Under the assured hand of director Serio, the acting is totally believable particularly from the young actors. As Michael whose crisis is not obvious to him, Ivan Howe is right on target, bringing back the days of darkest adolescence. Julius Rinzel is equally credible as Paul who is trying not to express what he is really feeling or to hurt his best friend. As Julian, Stanley Simons seems all wound up but ready for a catharsis which the others don’t believe is possible for him. Finn’s Judy is amusing as she tries to avoid answering Michael’s direct questions in order not to confuse him even more.

Avery Reed’s costumes define the characters: the boys’ surplises and school uniforms, Julian’s casual clothing and Judy’s Christmas sweater which she is still wearing in middle to late January. The subtle lighting by Stacey Derosier alternates between morning and late-night scenes, creating much needed atmosphere for the never changing set. Leah Gelpe’s excellent sound design includes a preshow mass, the wind and the storm, and the offstage choir practice. UnkleDave’s Fight-House handles the physical altercation between the boys with deft tact and sympathy.

Bubba Weiler’s ironically titled The Saviors handles difficult material with sensitivity and perception. While the engrossing story is leisurely told, the characters are interesting and believable. The crises of faith that takes over both boys is told with delicacy and subtlety. With only two produced plays to his credit, Weiler is still a young playwright who will make good on his promise in future plays. The Saviors’ lapses can easily be fixed with a second draft of this intriguing but not quite there play.

The Saviors (through August 15, 2026)

Atlantic Theater Company

Linda Gross Theater, 336 W. 20^th Street, in Manhattan

For tickets, call 646-452-2220 or visit http://www.atlantictheater.org

Running time: 100 minutes without an intermission