Go! review

When you get right down to the heart of the matter, when everything else has been explored and dissected, it could be that every play, every work of art skirts around the same big question, but “The Sunset Limited” puts the query front and center: Is life worth living?

On the pro side in Cormac McCarthy’s drama is Black, a name that is never really used in the dialogue but serves as a kind of symbolic, partly ironic nom de plume. It is descriptive, as Black is an African-American man (played in the Human Race production by Lindsay Smiling), but it is also partly ironic as Black takes the stand that life is most definitely worth the trouble. He is an ex-convict, part religious zealot and part good samaritan, living in a run-down New York City tenement that is sparse on appliances and furniture because he has a habit of taking in drug addicts and thieves who are in the habit of stealing everything in sight.

On the con side is White (resident artist Michael Kenwood Lippert), whom Black calls “professor.” He is equally adamant that life is pointless. In fact, the reason the two men sit face-to-face at the kitchen table is because Black has rescued White from a train platform where the latter was about to dive off the tracks to meet the high-speed front end of the Sunset Limited -  a name used totally as a metaphor because the real Sunset Limited is not a New York train. But what better name for a train to throw oneself in front of?

For two hours, no intermission, the two debate. White makes several attempts to get to the front door and back to the train platform, but Black is the stronger physical force. They discuss Jesus, the Bible, belief systems, friendship and the elusive nature of happiness. At White’s insistence, Black tells jailhouse stories. At Black’s insistence, White explains why life is a waste of energy.

It’s a little heady, no doubt, but fascinating. The arguments are deep, the dialogue both philosophical and laden with subtext. In fact, I’ve ordered a copy of the script so that I can go through it all again. It’s that poignant, that meaningful, that fascinating, that ripe for further exploration and discussion.

• WHAT: “Sunset Limited” by Cormac McCarthy
• WHERE: Human Race Theatre Company, Loft Theatre, 138 N. Main, Dayton
• WHEN: Through Nov. 11
• COST: $15.50-$34
• MORE INFO: (888) 228-3630; www.humanracetheatre.org