‘The Saviors’ Is a Haunting and Heartbreaking Rite of Passage

From about ten minutes into watching a performance of Bubba Weiler’s magnificent new play, “The Saviors,” I knew that one of the four cast members, Ivan Howe, was going to break my heart. That’s not a complaint; to the contrary, Mr. Howe brings the kind of emotional transparency to his role that distinguishes the most capable and natural stage actors, along with an instantly palpable, aching vulnerability.I should mention at this point that Mr. Howe just celebrated his 14th birthday last week, making him the same age as another key player in this production, Julius Renzel. Messrs. Howe and Renzel respectively play Michael and Paul, altar boys whose close friendship is challenged by both external factors and their own evolving views and feelings.Like his leading men — or boys, really — Mr. Weiler is a precocious talent. An actor himself, the 33-year-old made a spectacular professional playwriting debut last year with “Well, I Should Be Going,” a one-act piece that drew comparisons to “Our Town” with its lovely, haunting study of grief, betrayal, and resilience in a small Midwestern community.With “Saviors,” now opening off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theater Company’s Linda Gross Theater, Mr. Weiler brings the same nuance and insight to a story that unfolds in a similar setting, this time specifically within a Catholic church, represented as modest but handsome in David Zinn’s scenic design. We meet our adolescent protagonists as they’re playfully racing each other from the sacristy door to the front of the house.Michael, the chattier and more patently earnest of the two, begins retelling, with distinctly youthful zeal, the tale of Saint George, a Roman soldier who according to tradition became a Christian martyr by refusing to renounce his faith, even under the grisliest of torture. Paul asks his buddy if he would do the same, and Michael is certain he would; Paul admits he’s not sure.Yet when a man in tattered clothes suddenly enters the church, carrying a large backpack, it’s Paul who has the more Christian response: Where Michael recoils, encouraging the poor soul, named Julian, to leave for fear they’ll get in trouble for giving him refuge—“Are you Catholic?” Michael asks, informing him there are Presbyterian and Protestant churches nearby—Paul invites him to stay overnight, ensuring he’ll have access and later braving a blizzard to bring Julian food.Julian is one of two grownup characters who prove central to a major twist in “Saviors.” The other, Judy, is a middle-aged woman trying to get a church youth group started. Only Michael shows up to a meeting, to her obvious distress, but Michael provides consolation, offering to promote the group and latching onto Judy as a sort of maternal figure; he even asks if she’ll be his confirmation sponsor.Paul, we’ll soon learn, has been moving in a very different direction, to the point of questioning the beliefs that have been inculcated into him for years. He’s also growing uneasy about certain dynamics developing in his relationship with Michael, who clearly relies on him more, to the point of calling him incessantly to share bad and “weird” dreams.The spiritual and moral questions that emerge, and the extraordinary clarity and easy wit with which Mr. Weiler explores them, put me in mind of one of my favorite contemporary playwrights, Samuel D. Hunter, a gay man who was outed while attending a Christian school and whose writing is marked by a searching quality, an open mind and heart. I don’t know anything about Mr. Weiler’s religious upbringing or sexual orientation, but what matters is the compassion and humanism his experiences have plainly instilled in him, and how adroitly he applies them.Under the supple direction of Jack Serio, who also helmed “Going” and has collaborated with Mr. Hunter as well, the players mine the material for all its depth, which includes welcome flashes of humor. Stanley Simons captures Julian’s desperation along with his rough, wry edges, while Crystal Finn’s Judy is by turns funny and moving, then devastating in her last scenes, which follow a harrowing revelation. “Saviors” is ultimately Michael and Paul’s journey, though, and neither Mr. Howe nor Mr. Rinzel makes a single false move throughout the play’s 90 minutes. I can’t remember the last time I saw two actors not yet old enough to receive drivers’ permits relay such utter authenticity, made all the more impressive given the weighty issues and inquiries at hand here, among them the very existence of God.The Saviors” ultimately reinforces what is, regardless of your faith or lack of it, one of Christianity’s most irrefutable principles: that we as humans are all imperfect and, ideally, seeking grace. It’s a message that bears repeating now and again, and it’s seldom rendered more accessibly or beautifully than it is here.

‘The Saviors’ Is a Haunting and Heartbreaking Rite of Passage

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