Aliyah Bourgeault, Kaleb Piper, and Emmet Logue | Photo by Iza Rincón
Presented by Old Soles Theatre Collective
We, the audience, are the Sodomites in this scenario. And God wants to smite us (along with Gomorrah, don’t forget about Gomorrah!). He sends two angles—the dutifully wrathful and misanthropic Af (Emmet Logue) and his unlikely partner, the empathetic and generous of spirit Barbiel (Aliyah Bourgeault). God Save the Sodomites was an unexpected treat for me. Written with considerable wit by Bourgeault and Logue, and grounded by Jack Davidson‘s assuredly understated direction, its goofy, sketch comedy premise unfolds with surprising thoughtfulness and sincerely human dimension.
To start, the audience is invited to fill out a questionnaire about a good and bad thing they’ve done—and a bonus question to investigate our goodness (or lack thereof) in action. These responses become a significant part of the show as Af and Barbiel try to root out five good people amongst us so that Sodom (and Gomorrah) might be spared. At the performance I attended, things got a little dark, a little icky, yet consistently hilarious.
So, yeah, we are the lustful Sodomites (who would like to carnally know our angelic pair) gathered outside of Lot’s home. God wanted to spare him as the sole good person, but Af and Barbiel gradually discover that God might have been… wrong? (gasp!) Abrahamic favouritism? The more we learn about Lot, the more unappealing he gets and the better his unseen sleeping wife seems.
The tense, ever-evolving dynamic between Bourgeault and Logue really holds this all together. They both seem iconic—her with an open-hearted naivety from which a violent vigilante streak emerges and he with an haughty cynicism and scorn that eventually gives way to doubt and vulnerability. Kaleb Piper is gloriously irksome as a furtive, cloying, pathetic little man.
For all its giddy subversion, it feels pretty sincere and grounded in its playful scrutiny of this Biblical story and the greater ideological implications. Yes, a pile of salt figures into all this. And a glove! Before we get to that business though, it’s fun to glimpse, in their admissions, the revealing sensibilities of your fellow audience members. Regardless of the truth of these confessions, they do say something about the little segment of humanity gathered with you.
Aaron Ford and Sam Poole are credited as the design team, so enthusiastic applause to them if they are responsible for the whimsically accessorized, truly gorgeous costumes for Af and Barbiel. As cheesy as this may sound, I really did feel in the presence of divine creatures.
