PIONEER PRESS/Review: Theology gets a snarky, irreverent shake-up in Six Points’ ‘An Act of God’

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May 6
3 min read

May 5, 2025

By Rob Hubbard | wordhub@yahoo.com | Special to the Pioneer Press

Sally Wingert is God.

That might sound like inflated praise for an actor who’s been one of Twin Cities theater’s most consistently strong actors for decades now. But she really is playing the almighty in Six Points Theater’s “An Act of God.”

Sally Wingert, left, channels God, as a set of new commandments is delivered with the assistance of archangels Andrew Newman, top right, and Kevin Brown Jr., in Six Points Theater’s “An Act of God,” playing at the Highland Park Community Center through May 18, 2025. (Sarah Whiting / Six Points Theater)

Written by David Javerbaum — a longtime staffer for TV’s “The Daily Show” and satirical mock news site the Onion — “An Act of God” is right in line with the comical approach of a couple of bestselling books he helped create: American history textbook sendup “America: The Book” (from the staff of “The Daily Show”) and the Onion’s hilarious spoof of a coffee table news anthology, “Our Dumb Century.”

Javerbaum turned to the stage with “An Act of God,” penning a script in which God takes the form of a local actor and proceeds to present a revised version of the Ten Commandments, despite calling them overrated amid the body of God’s work. God then addresses and avoids questions about such theological quandaries as predetermination and the problem of evil.

Wingert nails the tone and timing brilliantly in Six Points’ production, portraying a deity who can be troublingly cavalier about human hardship when not maddeningly inconsistent. But Wingert’s God is always funny in this irreverent comic confection, even when pushing back ragefully on the Archangel Michael’s increasingly urgent pleas for answers to eternal questions.

Sally Wingert channels God and sheds mock tears at human hardship in Six Point Theater's "An Act of God" playing at the Highland Park Community Center through May 18. (Sarah Whiting/Six Points Theater)

If you’re easily offended by the suggestion that the Bible shouldn’t be taken too literally or too seriously, “An Act of God” might not be the show for you. But if you hold an anthropomorphized image of a god who can take a little ribbing, you might find a lot to laugh about. You probably won’t come away with any profound revelations, but it’s a clever show that makes for an enjoyable 90-minute comical confab.

Performed on a Michael Hoover set dominated by two giant two-story tablets that gradually display the revised commandments, the play becomes less a lecture on how to live your life than an opportunity to hear God retelling Bible stories from their own humorous perspective, from how the week went down when they created the universe to what really happened in the Garden of Eden to the zoological impossibility of the ark.

But Wingert leaves the snark behind and taps into her ample dramatic skills when offering a gripping account of Abraham almost sacrificing Isaac, a troubling tale that offers a glimpse of the idea that this deity might not be totally confident in their own abilities. That’s explored more when we get to the Gospels and God deals with their kid’s rebellion against all this smiting and judging.

With the help of two archangels – Kevin Brown Jr.’s earnest, audience-combing Michael and Andrew Newman’s gently sweet sidekick, Gabriel – director Craig Johnson has created an invariably engaging staging with an atmosphere somewhere between a stand-up routine, an afternoon TV gabfest and the more theologically provocative plays of Samuel Beckett or Eugene Ionesco.

Sure, “An Act of God” is silly and not tremendously substantial, but hats off to Six Points Theater for restarting a theatrical conversation about big issues like human belief systems. Laughter feels like an ideal avenue to get there.

Rob Hubbard can be reached at wordhub@yahoo.com.