The Atheist at Williamstown Theatre Festival
Fascinating Play Is About More Than a Lack of Faith
By: Charles Giuliano - Jun 27, 2008
The Atheist
Williamstown Theatre Festival: Nikos Stage
June 25 through July 6
By Ronan Noone; Starring, Campbell Scott; Sets, Cristina Todesco; Costumes, Jessica Curtright; Lights, Ben Stanton; Sound, Alex Neumann; Production Stage Manager, Emily Ellen Roberts; Production Manager, Jim D'Asaro; Directed by, Justin Waldman.
http://www.wtfestival.org/
At the beginning of a riveting evening in two acts the character/ narrator, Augustine Early (Campbell Scott) relates a cathartic moment from childhood when he sells his soul to the devil. Mephistopheles appears to the ersatz, adolescent Faust in the form of the garbage man picking up trash from in front of the trailer which the boy occupies with his single mother. It is also a signifier that the child is also in pragmatic terms "Trailer Trash" or a youth with grim prospects.
The trash man provocatively asks the boy if he has ever seen a crow with one eye. Over a period of time Augustine closely observes not just crows but all kinds of birds looking for that unique feature. Some time later the trash man returns and asks the boy if he has found that exotic bird. To which the answer is no. With a mischievous flourish the man points to a crow and says "There's one." And, while looking at it, closes one eye. The trash man has demonstrated how to see the crow with one eye.
In that moment the boy is humiliated to learn that he has been duped. The trash man, a person of the lowest social status and a surrogate for Augustine's own "trashy" state, has given him a valuable insight on how to beat the system that conspires against him. By extension, Augustine concludes that there is no God and therefore morality is a crock. He describes being liberated and thus empowered as a libertine. The weight of conscience and fear of punishment of life after death has been lifted from his shoulders. The boy is now free to scheme in enlightened self interest.
The first act of the damned youth is to torch their trailer. He warned his mother to remove her few valuables. But when she hesitates he hurls a Molotov cocktail at the trailer and delights as it is engulfed in flames. When she is enraged and asks for an explanation of this outrageous vandalism he punches her giving his mother a black eye. Augustine rubs her face with soot and further scruffs her up. Together they head to town and the Welfare office. Along the way the delinquent juvenile rehearses her in their sad tale. Which, once conveyed with the appropriate bathos, catapults them to the top of the Welfare list. This results in a relocation to much improved Section Eight housing. Augustine gloats "With a river view."
Because of the positive result of his crime and sinful behavior Augustine receives no reprimand from Mom. She is an enabler of further retreat into ever more outrageous illegal and immoral actions. Considering how best to apply his new found insights and dark arts he decides to become a journalist. That's cute.
Many who see this remarkable play by Ronan Noone, which was developed as a project with the Huntington Theatre Company and brought to Williamstown by the new artistic director, Nicholas Martin, have been intrigued by the riveting performance of Campbell Scott, but wonder just what is the point of the play? Augustine Early is a most unpleasant character who, by the end of the second act, is condemned to hell. Augustine is pushed to suicide by the ever more elaborate web of his own immoral actions. Like Faust, he enjoys short term rewards and glory. Ultimately, Beelzebub claims his soul for the eternal flames that Augustine has informed us he does not believe in or fear.
Of course, the anti hero and existentialist for whom God is Dead, and Being Precedes Essence, is hardly new or unique. Noone has revised and updated a trope that goes back to Goethe who derived it from the morality plays of the medieval era. The first, true, anti hero appears in the short novel "Notes From the Underground" written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky in 1864. That novel is related to us by an unnamed narrator who has come to be known by literary critics and philosophers as the Underground Man. In a different time, place and context there is a genetic match between that sordid tale and the more contemporary one spun for us by the despicable, ruthless, reporter and paparazzo, Augustine Early.
At the beginning of the second act Augustine too briefly reiterates his theory of why God is dead and the empowerment that knowledge provokes in acts of mayhem. His outrageous actions destroy the lives of those he writes about in the tabloids. Were Noone French, German, or Russian, no doubt, we would be treated to far more philosophical speculation about divinity and morality. Compare, for example, "The Atheist" by Noone, to "The Stranger" by Camus or "No Exit" by Sartre. But Augustine himself suggests that his role model is more likely the beat writer Jack Kerouac. Indeed, much of Kerouac was informed by existential thinking but in an effective, no brainer, American style of hipster action conveyed through vernacular language. The beats, of course, got that from Walt Whitman.
The direction by Justin Waldman, sound by Alex Neumann, and set by Cristina Todesco all combine to bring Augustine closer to the beat sensibility of Kerouac than to the superannuated philosophy of the historic existentialists. There is a kind of disconnect as Augustine in one swoop concludes that God is the big lie, the fairy tale of fundamentalists, and buzz off to all that religion and philosophy crap. Like a true beat he just grabs life by the stones, holds on tight, and rides the wild beast until he is tossed off violated and bloody. Augustine leaves a trail of mayhem in his tormented wake. Like The Underground Man he has affection for the tart whom he first screws and then screws over. There is no room for love in the heart of an atheist. If God is love then to abandon God forsakes love. As a true atheist/ existentialist/ beat Augustine loves only himself. Which is also to say that he is alone, pathetic, and desperate.
During intervals and transitions in the action we are treated to blasts of free jazz. We recognized snippets of Thelonious Monk. This sets the action in the 80s while there are anachronistic references to posting incriminating porn videos on line. Augustine has been dressed in the summer suit of a past generation. So there is confusion about just where to set the character and action. It is a serious flaw in the play and direction.
There were intervals when his image was captured and displayed by the video camera set up to record his confession and suicide note. He wants the world to know of his tragic tale just as the Underground Man was compelled to relate his smarmy, hateful experiences. "Call me Ishmael." It is less as an admission of wrong doing and more a beat screed, a thing of beauty, in and of itself. As "Trailer Trash" the sleazy, tabloid reporter has nothing to loose. Life dealt him a bad hand with a mandate to cheat. Morality is for those who can afford it. Augustine is a demonstration of the pragmatism of evil. Through reversal the low born and humble has been exalted resulting in momentary triumph. But, through the tragic flaw of lack of character, this briefly elevated success is destroyed by his own action. In this sense, Noone plays homage to the Poetics of Aristotle by messing with the concepts of a character's tragic flaw and reversal. Augustine's trajectory of evil may be compared to that of Iago in Othello.
Oh yes, the plot. What is the play "about?" That is a matter of some indifference and you can find the answer to that elsewhere or see the play itself. There is something about sex, lies and videotape involving a floozy would be "actress" and a corrupt, degenerate, voyeuristic politician. Perhaps we have already revealed too much. This is a fascinating play with a phenomenal performance by Campbell Scott. We are thrilled to have such superb theater in the Berkshires.
Be warned, however, that this is a disturbing experience. For all the wrong reasons, as a journalist, I understood and enjoyed Augustine Early. He is the kind of guy I like meeting over a beer and sharing war stories. He is the poster boy for everything wrong with the media today and the gossip hungry, bottom feeding, celebrity fixated, audience it targets. If you want to know why our culture is going to hell then, by all means, see this play. It's a pretty ugly story.