`Grace' examines the struggle between faith and reason

The provocative and moving new play "Grace" takes the ceaseless global struggle of faith versus reason to the domestic front. Mick Gordon and AC Grayling's work, now being presented by MCC Theater at off-Broadway's Lucille Lortel Theatre, pitches it as a battle between mother and son.

Grace Friedman, played with unflinching bravado by Lynn Redgrave, is a university professor and famous atheist. She is so committed to her ideals that she rejects the atheist description, saying it is a religious term. Redgrave is a serious, commanding presence with her cropped silver hair, conservative long sweater and black pants (costumes are by Alejo Vietti).

"The word itself gives credence to the idea it is pretending to criticize," she says. "It's pernicious. Atheist is not a description, it's advertising. I am a naturalist."

So, it naturally follows that Grace is completely appalled when her lawyer son, Tom (Oscar Isaac), announces that he's decided to become an Episcopalian priest. She is convinced that she's done something terribly wrong, and appeals for help to her secular Jewish husband, Tony (Philip Goodwin).

Goodwin is extraordinarily affecting in this role _ he is sweet-tempered and calm in the face of his wife's belligerence and his son's insistence. He tries to introduce reason and bring a bit of humor to the situation. Tony tells Grace to look on the bright side: No one is going to take a priest named Friedman seriously.

She is resolute in her disapproval and disappointment, though _ especially when Tom tells her that he has doubt and that "it's fine to be thinking, moderate, self-critical and religious." Isaac is very believable as the slightly naive son who is just as firm in his convictions as his mother. He is preaching better religion as an alternative to zealotry _ he believes it's possible to be enlightened and be religious.

For Grace, it's one or the other; she is as fundamentalist on this point as the groups she criticizes. "You can't have it both ways," she says. "It's faith or reason _ you have to choose." Her rigid philosophy drives Tom away, and after he is killed in a terrorist bombing, the relationship can never be repaired.

Tom's pregnant girlfriend, Ruth, thoughtfully and compassionately portrayed by K.K. Moggie, was never quite sure about his ambitions for the priesthood but she does know what kind of funeral he would have wanted, and when Grace opposes even this, she passionately demonstrates the consequences of her actions.

Director Joseph Hardy smoothly articulates the action as it leaps from past to present. An economical set by Tobin Ost consists of four main set pieces _ chaise lounge, kitchen table, park bench and "God Helmet" lab.

This last location frames the play: Grace has been invited to Canada to participate in an experiment where she'll wear a helmet implanted with electrodes that will attempt to identify the brain's electric pulses associated with mystical feelings. During this induced epiphany _ this mixture of spirituality and science _ Grace finds a modicum of salvation.