According to the director of In the Lap of the Gods, "The puzzles presented by the playwright spiral through historical events, then up into a future haunted by images of past gods, all viewed through the slightly skewed lens of the absurd." The absurd, however, implies existence of a center. Playwright Myroup displays none with his pageant in which "everycaveman" Moe goes from nature's cycle of birth and rebirth eventually into a future on a starship where he can determine fate with the push of a button. Supposedly, every stage Moe passes through involves a struggle between "imposed ideology and free will." Actually, each highlights some dominating repressive religion or orthodoxy, while free will gets short shift, even in terms of the power to effect change.
Pageant-like episodes display no principle of selection unless it is to imitate well-known dramatic situations. "Dramatic" refers mostly to movies like biblical epics, dramas about the Tudor age, glimpses at Puritanism gone awry (as in The Crucible and "The Scarlet Letter"), war stories in which opposing soldiers claim or pray to God believed to be on their separate sides, and "Star Wars." The future belongs to Elvis worship.
No, this is not a play by a precocious high school student, though it is sophomoric. Given the material, the cast does remarkably well at keeping straight faces. A lesser Mo than Michael DeSantis would have caused giggles. Neil Kasanofsky as Evil in various forms, usually clerical, exhibits a flair for melodrama. LisaMarie Moscato shows much spirit, especially as an almost-ravaged Pilgrim, and Amanda Swilley dons many hats smoothly. The young men are handsome and serious. The director handles arena staging pretty well, on the whole, considering the amount of prop-moving required. A musical melange of styles sometimes pleasantly diverts attention from the discordant series of scenes.
With this selection, Venice Little Theater's Stage II continues bringing unusual plays to a mostly traditional audience, but the "tradition" on its mainstage (Fiddler is playing there) is the current better choice for any playgoer.
