If the prospect of an old religious trial about belief in God and adherence to rules sounds heavy and grim, give David Ives' version a chance. The playwright best known for comedy makes a potentially leaden historical drama a lively and inspiring debate in New Jerusalem: The Interrogation of Baruch de Spinoza at Talmud Torah Congregation: Amsterdam, July 27, 1656.
In Lantern Theater Co.'s handsome production, Sam Henderson excels as the title character, a young rabbinical scholar and philosopher "intoxicated by God" — but accused of being an atheist, a heretic, a pagan, a pantheist, even a Presbyterian — whose adherence to logic, not faith and feeling, threatens the uneasy peace between Amsterdam's relatively tolerant Christians and a thousand Jews exiled by the Catholic Inquisition. Witty and outspoken, Spinoza can't help but needle his Christian accuser (Seth Reichgott, channeling modern doom-saying evangelicals) and the Jewish leaders who reluctantly agree to try him. "After the elegant absurdity of being born a Jew," Spinoza quips, "why would I embrace the illogic of Christianity?"
Challenged to persuade his judges not to exile him, he passionately replies, "Try me. We'll argue." And he does, brilliantly and clearly, driven by a life force that makes the play not about him, but others' willingness to comprehend and accept his radical notions. As in similar trial plays like Arthur Miller's The Crucible and George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan, Spinoza predictably rejects the chance to cut a deal and live happily ever after. This doesn't dampen the drama, which soars through his words' sometimes surprising affects on the convincingly played characters: David Bardeen as his loving mentor, David Blatt as the Jews' civic leader, Jake Blouch and Mary Tuomanen as conflicted Christian friends, and Kittson O'Neill as Spinoza's half sister, whose comedic function builds to a neat dramatic surprise. That Spinoza's ideas sound so fresh and intriguing is a credit to Ives, Henderson, and, of course, Spinoza himself.
Through Nov. 6, $28-$36, Lantern Theater Co. at St. Stephen's Church, 923 Ludlow St., 215-829-0395, lanterntheater.org.
