Religion, pornography, love cross paths in ill at ease ‘Hesperia’

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Rebecca Butler stars as Daisy and Nathan Hosner stars as Ian in “Hesperia” at Writers’ Theatre.

Updated: March 8, 2012 8:04AM

First, a few words about the title of Randall Colburn’s “Hesperia,” the alternately smoldering and God-fearing play now receiving a seductive Writers’ Theatre production that is exceptionally blessed by director Stuart Carden’s inspired casting.

In Greek mythology, the Hesperides were “nymphs who tended a blissful garden in a far western corner of the world,” with Hesperia known as the goddess of the evening star. Hesperia also is the name of a city in California, not far from the Mojave Desert, that is home to a large number of Bible schools, and Colburn seems to have borrowed the name for the small Midwestern town that is the setting for his story.

As for Colburn’s subject, it is nothing less than the feverish tension between heaven and hell that can drive some to fundamentalist religion, others to pornography, and leave most people in a mostly unquestioned state of limbo between these two extremes.

A Chicago-based playwright whose work is new to me (although it has been produced by a number of smaller local companies, including The Right Brain Project, which staged an early version of “Hesperia”), Colburn clearly possesses a sensibility that fits right into the American grain, following in the paths of both Tennessee Williams and William Inge in his exploration of sex, love and repression, while bringing his own distinctive perspective to the conundrum.

The back story is this: Claudia (Kelly O’Sullivan, petite, blonde, buff and aptly taut and torn), is the daughter of a mother who turned to prostitution and the Bible. Some years earlier she ran off to Los Angeles with her hunky childhood sweetheart, Ian (Nathan Hosner, ideally raw yet sweet, and in a remarkable 180-degree turn from his recent splendid portrayal of Henry Higgins in “My Fair Lady” at the Paramount Theatre). The two of them became enmeshed in the pornographic film business, maintaining a unique relationship, both onscreen and off. But Ian got caught up in drugs and dangerous debts, and Claudia ran off, seeking refuge in the relative safety of her heartland hometown, which knows little about her sordid exploits. (Chelsea M. Warren’s wheat field set comes with a sky suggesting a stained glass window.)

Claudia’s new life now revolves, uneasily, around her fiance, Trick (Erik Hellman, who is so good you forget he’s acting). He is the town’s youth minister, the thoughtful 25-year-old virgin who she has told about her past, and who has helped lead her to God and redemption. His fervent faith is sorely tested when Ian shows up shortly before he and Claudia are to be married. Nevertheless, he tries to lead Ian into the good life. And Ian even begins to see the light, though there is too much unfinished business between Ian and Claudia, both of whom harbor many demons.

Adding exceptionally fine fuel to the fire here is Claudia’s adventurous, hormone-fueled, but innocent younger cousin, Daisy (Rebecca Buller), who is hot for Ian, yet skittish. The scenes between Hosner and the dark-eyed, radiantly alive Buller could not be more sizzling or real. Splendor in the grass.

Also injecting a delicious bit of charm and humor into the play is Trick’s Bible class student, Aaron, with boyish actor Tyler Ross turning in a spot-on, guileless, utterly irresistible performance.

Colburn’s play can feel overly contrived at moments, and its back story is not always seamlessly integrated. But the Writers’ Theatre production (marking a rare but welcome foray into the “new play” arena) is compellingly watchable. And the playwright deftly leaves a large question mark hovering over the marriage of Trick and Claudia. For as the poet T.S. Eliot asked: “After such knowledge, what forgiveness?”

NOTE: For another bristling play about sex, love, faith and the unknown, check out Eric Pfeffinger’s “Accidental Rapture,” extended through Feb. 25 at Berwyn’s 16th Street Theeater. Visit www.16thstreettheater.org.