Lily Tung Crystal, Theater Mu's leader, welcomed patrons Friday to her company's first in-person show in two years by telling them that if the action onstage gets too intense, they can exit the theater without judgment for a designated quiet, safe space in the lobby.
The producers might also want to have therapists on standby at Minneapolis' Mixed Blood Theatre, where "Man of God" is taking place. For Anna Ouyang Moench's forebodingly funny play tends to rouse trauma by its palpably evocative scenarios around sexual abuse, eating disorders and drug use.
The feminist thriller that is as engrossing as the aftermath of a car crash — you really do ache and wonder who has been hurt — marks Katie Bradley's auspicious directorial debut. Hers is a chiaroscuro vision, twinning darkness and light as humor and the macabre inhabit the same moments.
"Man of God" reveals the depth of misogyny and patriarchal power imbalance that high schoolers confront on the cusp of adulthood. Even their language often is embedded with anti-female prejudice. The show also asks important questions around justice and revenge. Is retribution the best way to right wrongs?
The action begins as four teenagers Kyung-Hwa (Janet Scanlon), Mimi (Dexieng "Dae" Yang), Samantha (Suzie Juul) and Jen (Louisa Darr) cluster around something that looks like a cellphone. They could be taking a selfie but we soon find out that the situation is more dire.
Two days into a mission trip, the quartet from a Korean Christian girls' youth group have discovered a camera in their Bangkok hotel bathroom. Their chaperone, Pastor (Rich Remedios as the eeriest and creepiest of villains), put it there.
The violation rankles the teens, who confront issues of faith, idealism and cynicism. Some of them begin to imagine lurid revenge fantasies.
Moench takes great care to sketch different types of contemporary but believable characters, from totally hopeful and naïve Kyung-Hwa and true-believer Samantha, who carries a tiny knife and wears the armor of Jesus, to worldly and profane Mimi. Jen is more in the middle.
But no matter their difference and the fact that they are in a different country, they all confront the same challenges.
Sarah Bahr designed the single hotel room setting with two beds and a bathroom. The changing locales are suggested by Wu Chen Khoo's lighting design and Katharine Horowitz's sound score, which includes dramatic bells, cymbals and gongs.
Bradley gets committed performances from her cast, with Scanlon imbuing Kyung-Hwa with inexperience and sweetness while Juul, perhaps the most experienced of the female actors, giving Samantha oodles of naivete.
Yang has perhaps the most fun part since Mimi gets to say exactly what she feels when she feels it and in whatever language she chooses. Yang excels at it.
"Man of God" is smartly written, offering a critique of patriarchy by showing, not telling, and by deploying biting, jargon-free humor. If it has a flaw, it's that it chickens out in the end, leaving us craving justice even if its messy.
Maybe, just maybe, the bad guy could have his comeuppance and we could have some hope of progress even if it seems like that can only happen in the theater — like the notion itself is a just a far-fetched fantasy.
'Man of God'
Who: By Anna Ouyang Moench. Directed by Katie Bradley.
When: 7:30 p.m. Wed.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. Through March 6.
Where: Mixed Blood Theatre, 1501 S. 4th St., Mpls.
Protocol: Vaccination or lab-confirmed negative COVID test within 72 hours required. Masks required.
Tickets: "Pay-as-you-are," ranging from $5-$50, theatermu.org.
