“The Saviors” at Atlantic Theater Company (Photo: Ahron R. Foster)

In Bubba Weiler’s debut play, the exceptional Well, I’ll Let You Go, he turned his gift for writing two-person scenes into the play’s structure. The central character, Maggie, moves through one-on-one interactions with seven different characters, allowing the plot, and the emotions, to accumulate until they come crashing down on the audience. It was a genius gambit, made all the more effective by Jack Serio’s sensitive staging and an unbeatable ensemble of actors.

Weiler’s new play, The Saviors, has some things in common: it’s also largely comprised of two-person scenes, has been delicately nurtured by Serio, and has a fantastic company of actors inhabiting the roles. But the pleasant surprise is that, despite its older sibling, The Saviors feels nothing like Well, I’ll Let You Go. It’s distinctively its own thing – the characters speak differently, there’s more traditional plotting – yet, it’s equally tense, affecting, and funny. 

Michael (Ivan Howe) and Paul (Julius Rinzel) are altar boys at a small Catholic church in the midwest. They’re following the path set by countless boys before them. But the appearance of a drifter in their sanctuary upends those expectations and opens Paul’s eyes to other possibilities, leaving Michael scrambling to reach his friend. 

Weiler’s text insists that Michael and Paul be cast with age-authentic actors and it turns out to be crucial to the play’s success. Howe and Rinzel are both deeply in tune with their inner lives for being so young, but they’re still figuring out their (rapidly changing) bodies and have that teenage awkwardness that no adult actor could ever hope to replicate. There’s also something magical about their chemistry, a recognizable investment in the relationship, that mirrors how kids become friends in real life.

Perhaps it’s his background as an actor that allows Weiler to tap into that memory of teenagedom and to transfer it to the page. Speaking from my own experience, Michael is particularly relatable and his actions in response to Paul – trying to understand him, trying to help him, and ultimately trying to keep him – are frighteningly close to the bone. Through an incisive ear for dialogue and what’s said versus what’s unsaid, Weiler creates characters that feel truer than most people you’ll encounter in real life. He’s laying souls bare.

Serio’s production parallels the inherent theatricality of church with, well, theatre. Atlantic’s stage is literally a former parish house. We can’t quite call The Saviors site-specific, but what a specific site to stage this particular play. The audience becomes the unseen congregation, our seats the unfilled pews, facing the altar where the boys set the stage for the priest to perform. 

Set designer David Zinn’s knack for slightly decaying interiors is on full display – look at the edges of the carpet, screaming for a Stanley Steemer. Stacey Derosier’s lighting is always Serio’s secret weapon and it’s no exception here. The Saviors takes place early in the morning and late at night and the countless ways Derosier manages to delineate time, mood, and situation through the lighting are wildly impressive. 

The acting company is rounded out by Stanley Simons (mysterious, threatening, and heartbreaking) and one of New York’s finest actors, the irreplaceable Crystal Finn. Fresh from an absolutely delicious, broadly comic performance at Clubbed Thumb Summerworks, Finn here deploys her excellent timing to win us over, but then she’s given a truly devastating scene to play. Her tension is palpable – I swear I felt her heartbeat. The play unwraps this woman as it goes on and in Finn’s skilled hands, you cannot rip your eyes from her. 

I ended my review of Serio’s definitive Uncle Vanya talking about his attention to prop details and his economy of stuff onstage. Here, I had the same connection to the purse that Finn carries. It contains something life-altering and, in a very heightened conflict, becomes the focal point, dead center on the stage. How Serio so subtly imbues this inanimate object with such weight is just one example of his talent. There are many others in The Saviors, and of Weiler’s, too. Let’s cross our fingers that they continue making plays together.