A Case for the Existence of God
New City Players in Wilton Manors
By: Aaron Krause - Feb 26, 2026
In New City Players’ (NCP) moving professional production of the tense but hopeful drama, A Case for the Existence of God, Ryan looks like he could use a friend.
As he sits in a mortgage office in Idaho, the unshaven Ryan’s leg bounces, his hands shake, and he leans forward like someone in need. Across from him is an employee who may help him secure the mortgage he desperately needs. By the end of the play, Ryan’s head and Keith’s will touch, and they will happily embrace. It’s a heartwarming moment that proves it pays to reach out and let someone into your life, even after a long period of isolation.
Certainly, Ryan, Keith, and those of us experiencing NCP’s powerful production gain hope by the end. The production runs through March 8 at Island City Stage’s intimate black box theater in Wilton Manors, near Fort Lauderdale. It lasts about an hour and 20 minutes without intermission. Under NCP Producing Artistic Director Tim Davis’s sensitive direction, the production stars Ryan Didato as Ryan and Randall Swinton as Keith.
A Case for the Existence of God takes place in the present. The divorced Ryan, a white factory worker whose drug-addicted parents raised him in poverty, seeks a mortgage to buy property that his family once owned for him and his young daughter. Meanwhile, Keith, who is single and Black, yearns to adopt the girl he has been fostering. However, he faces uncertainty after the child’s biological aunt learns that Keith is gay.
While Ryan might show it more, both men are on edge—so much so that when their cellphones ring, they jump, bracing for bad news.
Island City Stage’s small space makes us feel as though we are in the same room with these characters. This heightens their authentic emotions, resulting in a visceral theatrical experience that draws us into their vulnerability.
For much of the play, Ryan and Keith hardly move. Though they mostly remain seated, Davis and the actors find ways to convey information about the characters and their state of mind. At the beginning, Keith and Ryan sit apart at the distance you would expect for a business transaction. But as their relationship evolves from a formal association to a personal connection, they physically inch closer. At one point, they are practically sitting in the same chair, with Keith showing Ryan photos of his foster daughter on his cellphone.
Even while seated, the actors shift positions, lending variety to the action and preventing the characters from becoming talking heads. For instance, they lean forward with eagerness or determination, or sit back during more relaxed moments. Ryan also wears his hat forward at the start of the show, but later turns it backward, suggesting increasing informality and growing trust. In addition, the men drink alcohol, loosening their inhibitions further. As they down whiskey, they become unsteady. To the actors’ credit, they find fitting ways to express their characters’ growing drunkenness, both verbally and physically.
While much of the action takes place in the mortgage office, it is not the play’s only setting. One scene unfolds at a playground, where the men watch their daughters playing together. By this point, they have become close friends, and the moment feels deeply moving as they rush to photograph the girls—one Black, the other white—holding hands. The image resonates in a contemporary climate marked by social and political division. The play also underscores the uncertainty Keith faces as a gay single man whose sexual orientation could be used against him in his effort to adopt his foster daughter.
Discussion of Keith’s homosexuality even turns humorous. When Ryan mentions a gay individual at a nearby business without naming him, Keith hesitates. After a pause, he reveals that he has already reached out. “His name’s Nick. We had coffee—once,” Keith tells Ryan.
As Swinton portrays him, Keith seems the calmer of the pair. He is less fidgety and projects control. That makes sense; while both men are troubled, Keith’s employment situation is more secure than Ryan’s. But his composure suddenly cracks at times, shocking us. Swinton offers almost no warning before these moments. As Keith gasps for breath, we fear he may be having a medical emergency. At another point, he explodes in anger, thunderously and without warning. The outburst extends beyond words, with Keith throwing objects and destroying his neatly organized office cubicle (designed sparingly yet with telling detail by scenic designer Michael McClaine).
Didato is an actor whose facial expressions vividly convey emotion, especially anxiety and stress. We witnessed this, for instance, in Zoetic Stage Company’s intense production of Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman. In that production, Didato played an author in a totalitarian state arrested after fictional murders in his stories begin to resemble real-life killings. By looking at Didato alone, you could instantly tell that panic had gripped his character. In NCP’s production of A Case for the Existence of God, we also sense Ryan’s unease from the outset. Yet that tension melts when Didato flashes a bright smile or relaxes back in his chair. In addition to his expressive face, Didato possesses a flexible voice that clearly communicates his character’s shifting emotional state.
Under Davis’s direction, pauses often prove as revealing as spoken words. Silence becomes expressive, and nonverbal communication succeeds when the characters lack language for what they are experiencing. Davis and his cast deftly balance restraint with intensity, mirroring life’s natural rhythms.
While this production is certainly praiseworthy, it is not without flaws. At one point, the actors abruptly stop portraying Keith and Ryan and instead assume the roles of their daughters later in life (the girls who, earlier, held each other’s hands as toddlers and often played together). The sudden shift caught me off guard; when one of the characters said, “When I was a little girl,” I momentarily struggled to understand what had occurred. A brief note in the program clarifying that each actor plays both his primary character and that character’s daughter in a later scene might help ease potential confusion.
But it’s clear that Hunter, a recipient of the MacArthur “Genius Grant,” is a talented playwright. Specifically, he deeply respects his characters and elevates ordinary settings such as a small office cubicle to explore themes such as fatherhood, the American Dream, masculinity, loneliness, connection, faith, and redemption. In addition, his stripped-down writing, featuring pauses, silences, and cut-off sentences, reflects the awkward and imperfect nature of real human communication. Hunter also follows well-known advice to writers to write what they know; Hunter, like Keith, grew up gay in a conservative religious community in Idaho.
At the end of NCP’s production, a black curtain offstage opens, significantly widening the tight space on which the actors performed for much of the show. The opening symbolizes the fact that these characters’ lives have expanded since Ryan walked into Keith’s small mortgage office. Because they opened their lives to each other, they’ve grown emotionally and offered hope not just to themselves, but their daughters, who, as adults, continue their friendship from childhood.
A Case for the Existence of God may not deal directly with divine matters, but finding hope and human connection in unexpected places can enhance our faith in our often-troubled world.
IF YOU GO
WHAT: New City Players’ professional production of “A Case for the Existence of God” by Samuel D. Hunter
WHEN: Feb. 20-March 8
WHERE: Island City Stage’s intimate black box space, 2304 N. Dixie Highway in Wilton Manors
TICKETS: $40-$45 except for the “pay what you wish” preview on Friday, Feb. 20. You can buy tickets online at www.newcityplayers.org, email boxoffice@newcityplayers.org or call (954) 376-6114.
MORE INFORMATION: In addition to 13 performances spread over 3 weekends, New City Players has planned post-show events that take audiences Beyond the Stage:
Pay What You Wish Preview: Making theatre accessible with special pricing from $5-25. Friday, February 20th, 8pm.
Opening Night Reception: Enjoy libations and small bites compliments of Union Kitchen & Bar and Clearwave Dental & Aesthetics with the cast and creative team immediately following the performance. Saturday, February 21st after the 8pm show.
Weekend Wine Downs: Casual conversations and libations after Friday and Saturday night performances where patrons can discuss the play with each other and members of the creative team. February 27th, 28th, March 6th, and 7th.
Sunday Talkbacks: Interactive discussions with the cast and creative team after every Sunday performance for those wanting to explore the production process. February 22nd, March 1st, and 8th.