This production contains smoke/haze effects, coarse language, mature themes, sexual references, references to domestic and sexual violence and depictions of graphic violence, suicide and drug use.
Is God Is opens with a person whose head is encased in a burning house, the play foreshadows the homicidal acts that destroy the very fabric of familial ideals. Twin sisters Racine and Anaia have been estranged from their mother for several years and reconnect through a letter she sends from her death bed. All three bear the scars of their father’s attempt to burn their mother alive and on their mother’s directive, decide to reap violent vengeance upon him.
The play features an all-black cast, with co-directors Zindzi Okenyo and Shari Sebbens continuing their acclaimed streak of steering stories that strike a communal resonance, including their recent hit stage debut, Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner. Henrietta Enyonam Amevor (previously in Sydney Theatre Company’s Hubris & Humiliation) stars as the timid Anaia and Masego Pitso kills her MTC debut as the assertive Racine. Cessalee Stovall plays their mother, referred to as the eponymous 'God', with an authority that resounds throughout the play as the driving intention behind the twins’ mission.
The journey traverses the Deep South to the Californian desert to Connecticut, taking its stylistic inspiration from spaghetti westerns, hip-hop and Afropunk. It strings together ideas of questionable morality, heroes, and villains with clear nods to African American culture. Biblical references underpin the dialogue across the play, with the twins comparing themselves to Cain and Abel at one point, giving rise to the idea that their parents may be manifestations of an even more sinful Adam and Eve.
Racine and Anaia’s mission is spawned from childhood abandonment and neglect; a dangerous motivation should any person act as an obstacle to their goal. When they witness the new middle-class lifestyle their father has created — equipped with a wife, almost 17-year-old twin sons and a white picket fence — Anaia and Racine are confronted with the class disparity of their own existence, yielding brutal results.
Their father’s new set of twin sons, Riley (Grant Young), a plant enthusiast, and Scotch (Darius Williams), an aspiring poet, are a happy-go-lucky pair in comparison to their half-siblings — a clear juxtaposition designed to distinguish between good and evil. The dim-witted and unsuspecting pair have a hilarious repartee, creating tension before encountering Anaia and Racine. In particular, a line from Scotch as he declares, “it’s an acrostic that doesn’t announce itself”, gets a belly laugh.
The set is minimalistic, with a single wooden house in the centre, used with incredible versatility. The doors are opened and the structure is shifted around to transform between Anaia and Racine’s mother’s death bed to their father’s new homely abode. Anaia and Racine push against the corners of the house, turning it to indicate the start of a new scene, reiterating that the evolving notion of 'home' is what binds this chilling tale. The costumes feel contemporary, utilising pop colours to contrast against the simple and bare set design.
The dialogue transitions from malice to laugh-out-loud, offbeat humour. It takes time to adjust to the southern drawl and vernacular, but the meaning becomes more apparent once you’re immersed in the plot. When their mother requests they kill their father, Racine responds with a casual “we respect that you dying and all”, to which their mother responds dryly as the doors to her bedroom close “, dead, real dead. A little blood is fine.”
The show is very good at gradually amplifying violence to build anticipation as Anaia and Racine develop their palate for murder across the narrative arc until the final climactic altercation. Kevin Copeland plays the father and is a menacing, striking figure instilling fear in a cattleman-style as he snaps his belt threateningly. Occasionally, the fight scene choreography from Anaia and Racine was a little too tentative when it came to landing a punch. However, more conviction will grow as the run continues. The meek will inherit the earth.
Is God Is is a captivating tale of retribution with exceptional performances that draw you in through a sinister premise. Moreover, the nuanced characters are so flawed that they are beyond religious deliverance.