I'm not sure how the actual reviews section works, so I'll stick the first part of my review of Eric Samuelsen's "The Plan" here for now.

The Plan

I forget who it was who said watching Edmund Kean perform Richard III was like reading Shakespeare, illuminated by flashes of lightning. After centuries of stilted, poorly-rehearsed, convention-driven performances of Shakespeare’s works, a single, unusually talented actor had found a way to bring out the emotional truths of some moments with a power and clarity that was overwhelming.

The Plan, Eric Samuelsen’s broad-ranging retelling of a series Old Testament stories centered on women, felt something like that. The whole play is good, certainly, but it’s the flashes of original, powerful insights that left me reeling, both after leaving the theatre following the original WDA staged reading, and again after my recent re-reading of the script. Far more than just raising feminist issues through the Bible, The Plan explores and articulates ideas core to the restoration of the gospel, and does important philosophical work showing the resonance of ancient gospel truths with some of the ideas we most closely associate with secular modernity.

In order to do justice to the philosophy presented in the play, I’ll be writing separate, spoiler-ridden commentaries on each of the six distinct scenes that make up the play. The scenes are, historically (more or less) independent, and non-chronologically ordered, but thematically interwoven. For those who want a detailed overview of the six without thorough spoilers of every scene, I present the following plot synopsis:

Synopsis

In the first scene, we see a premortal Eve, still known as Gaia, confront her brother/colleague Lucifer regarding rumors that he will oppose the Plan God has presented. After seeing the pain-filled process of evolution, with the help of which God’s children have created and organized life in the world, Lucifer has some compelling arguments about the seeming injustices of the Plan, and about the ramifications of human agency. The scene serves as an excellent prologue to the subsequent scenes of human struggle in the harsh ancient world, an interpretive lens through which to view the pains, struggles, and choices of various scriptural figures.

The second scene, between David and Bathsheba, takes place the first time she hears of the death of Uriah. This scene serves as a sort of introduction to the lot of women in ancient times, depicting the delicate situation Bathsheba has found herself forced into, and detailing the lose-lose decisions she faced on her way to the current point. An idealistic but somewhat clueless David serves as a foil for Bathsheba’s clinical realism. We begin to see the arguments of both Lucifer and, perhaps more subtly, Gaia, about the pros and cons of the Plan played out in this detailed conjectural depiction of the forces that may have been operating beneath the text of this well-known Biblical story.

A scene on the night in which Ruth lies at the feet of Boaz closes the act, a definite shift in tone and perspective from the Bathsheba scene. Although still aware of the danger inherent in the situation, the scene is humorous, and often tender. Having been confronted with the harsh realities of life, especially for women, in ancient times, by the previous scene, we now get a glimpse of the good and gentleness that has existed in every age, and not only in the somewhat more enlightened times we’ve been blessed to live in. Again, the scene acts on two levels to create meaning: independently, and also in the context of Gaia’s play-opening debate with Lucifer.

The second act opens with a scene called “Rachel’s Sister,” set on the morning after Jacob’s marriage to Leah. Incredibly, Samuelsen finds a way to make even Laban (referenced in the scene, not depicted) come across as sympathetic and to show us the possible complexities of the situation, emphasizing the significance and uniqueness of the doctrine of covenant marriage.

Next comes “Outside Jericho,” an imagined meeting between Joshua and Rahab, the Jerichite woman who had agreed to help his men conquer the city in exchange for a guarantee of safety. The initial reason for the meeting is so Joshua can decide whether sparing Rahab and her family is permissible, in light of his mission to destroy the idolaters who inhabit Canaan, but their meeting develops into a discussion of the uniqueness of the Hebrew faith, and the complications of even necessary killing in the name of God.

Finally, having seen a range of the complexities of ancient life, we return to Eve, now lying sick and in pain on the final day of her mortality, talking with her husband, Adam. Not only does this scene return us to a character from the first scene, we come directly back to the thematic heart of the opening dialogue: is it worth it? Can the pain, suffering, and moral complexities of the Plan be justified in any way? The answer is perhaps, no different than the one we would expect to hear in any Sunday School or Fast & Testimony meeting across the LDS world, but I think it also becomes all the sweeter when we’ve had a chance to take a clear look at the difficult and bitter.

Keep your eyes open for future production(s) of The Plan. This is a play well worth seeing, and an important contribution to the body of modern Mormon letters.

So when was this workshopped? Is there a production in the works anytime soon? Sounds like a very interesting play (of course I'm a bit of a Samuelsen fan so I had a feeling I'd find it to be interesting :) )

Well, keep us posted (esp now that I am close enough to actually have a chance of attending a performance).