A pair of single fathers from mirror-opposite backgrounds bond against all odds over parenthood, financial challenges, and a shared “specific kind of sadness” in Samuel D. Hunter’s deeply moving two-hander, A Case For The Existence Of God, the fifth of Hunter’s 15 “Idaho Plays” to get a pitch-perfect Los Angeles Premiere at Rogue Machine Theatre.

Carlo Manascola makes a memorable Rogue Machine debut as recently divorced 30something factory worker Ryan, who’s shown up at the office of mortgage broker Keith (Nicholas Anthony Reid, equally unforgettable) in hopes of securing a loan that will go towards purchasing a 12-acre plot of land on which to build a home for himself and his fifteen-month-old daughter Krista.

And who better to help him finesse the financially daunting enterprise than fellow dad Keith, whom Ryan has met and briefly bonded with at their toddler daughters’ daycare?

It isn’t just Ryan’s Krista and Keith’s Willa that the two men have in common, however.

Each has grown up in Twin Falls, Idaho, albeit from vastly distinct financial and racial upbringings (Ryan is poor and white, Keith privileged and black) and each still resides in the same mid-sized Pacific Northwest city, albeit leading vastly distinct lives. (Ryan is straight, blue-collar, and divorced; Keith is gay, white-collar and single.)

Whatever their similarities or differences, however, if ever there were two men less likely to become friends, they are Ryan, who has never left the country (and has to ask Keith what he means when he uses words like “harrowing” and “tacitly”), and Keith, whose family spent their summers in faraway places like Estonia before he went on to get a dual degree in Early Music and English.

Still, to assume that these two men have no potential for bonding would be to underestimate the power of playwright Hunter to dig deep into the human soul as he has done in such previous Idaho-based-masterpieces as A Bright New Boise and The Whale, and once again in A Case For The Existence Of God.

And since I’ve now mentioned the title of Hunter’s 2022 two-hander for the second time, let me clear up what it doesn’t mean.

Not even once over the course of A Case For The Existence Of God’s 95-minute running time does a Supreme Being even get a mention other than an occasional “God!,” nor does religion enter into the picture for that matter, and it is not until the play’s transcendent coda that a case for God’s Existence can indeed be made.

As to how those final five or so supremely powerful minutes justify the play’s somewhat deceptive title, I highly recommend that you make a beeline for the Matrix on Melrose where Sam Hunter’s third-most-recent play will take you on an emotional roller-coaster ride as Keith and Ryan let down their guards and as circumstances and events conspire to shatter each man’s dreams.

Fresh from directing Hunter’s latest play, Grangeville, at the Ruskin Group Theatre, John Perrin Flynn elicits two of the finest performances you’ll see all season from a couple of Rogue Machine newbies, Reid’s open-faced, open-hearted Keith contrasting perfectly with Mancasola’s rougher-hewn, soulful-eyed Keith, and not only do the two actors develop fully-rounded characters, they do so with the audience seated only inches away in Rogue Machine’s uber-intimate upstairs Henry Murray Stage.

Stephanie Kerley Schwartz’s small but meticulously appointed office set is strikingly lit by Ric Zimmerman. (Michelle Bierbauer is digital props designer and Byron Coolie is prop coordinator.) Meanwhile, Christopher Moscatiello’s expert sound design helps to establish where we are at any given time as costume designer Christine Cover Ferro gives each man a single outfit that reveals a great deal about who Keith and Ryan are even at first glance.

A Case For The Existence Of God is produced by Lexi Sloan. Sheryl Scott and Coolie are associate producers. Coolie is assistant director. Rich Wong is stage manager. Casting is by Victoria Hoffman. Judith Borne is publicist.

There’s no contemporary American playwright whose work I love and admire more than Samuel D. Hunter, and I count myself fortunate beyond words to have now seen ten of his plays. A Case For The Existence Of God may well be the most intimate and profoundly moving of them all.

Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles. Through November 1. Mondays and Fridays at 8:00. Saturdays and Sundays at 5:00.
www.roguemachinetheatre.org

–Steven Stanley
September 21, 2026
Photos: Jeff Lorch

Tags: Los Angeles Theater Review, Matrix Theatre, Rogue Machine Theatre, Samuel D. Hunter