This new play from US writer Catherine Trieschmann – whose ‘Crooked’ was warmly received at the Bush – traces the tensions in a tornado-hit Kansas town when atheist biology teacher Susan (Anna Francolini) blows in and starts shooting her mouth off, to the annoyance of the God fearin’ locals.
As a well-acted depiction of an emotional power struggle between Susan, her earnest, disturbed student Micah (Perry Millward) and meddling postmaster Gene (Ciaran McIntyre), Des Kennedy’s production for Out of Joint/Arcola is solid stuff. Francolini’s Anna is nuanced and far from wholly sympathetic: her slapdash liberal trust in science seems almost frivolous next to Micah’s deeply personal relationship with his God.
Ultimately, though, creationism, intelligent design and the, er, possibility that dinosaur bones were placed in the soil as a test of our faith are so far away from mainstream debate in this country that this play has little topicaility in Britain, other than to perhaps remind us that some Americans believe some pretty weird things.