Hiller's play well-acted, directed but overwritten

Chestnut Hill resident Richard Goldberg's fascinating yet maddening and ultimately unsuccessful God of Desire could just as easily been titled God's Desire or Desire for God or, perhaps, God is Desire.

What the play is more than anything else is an intellectual exploration of the role that God plays in the love affair of a sincerely religious and well-meaning 20-year old.

Edward Judah Levitsky (Jason Liebman) has always found that there was something in his life that was profound and indescribable. His loving and influential grandfather, Zayde, (Harry Philibosian) believes that whatever it is that makes Eddie special comes from God and is of God.

We first meet as a little kid just after his father, a brilliant violinist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, has died young of leukemia.

As Eddie grows up, he continues to seek. Working with his rabbi (Seth Reichgott), his explorations and questions are interesting, universal and the launching pad for his spiritual journey.

Then hormones happen.

So does Evelyn (Lori McNally).

When the two finally discover the delights of physical love both are overcome by the intensity of the feelings, physical and emotional. These two are really in love. Their devotion and commitment are limitless. Eddies finds God is in that relationship, especially in the sex.

And that's where the play, getting its world premiere at the InterAct Theatre Company through June 6, falls apart. While the conversation and the exploration are fascinating (and at times tough going for this Episcopalian; there are a lot of Jewish references that make the play more difficult for those of non-Jewish heritage) it is hard to take it all too terribly seriously.

Sure, Eddie has the sincerity and passion about his quest for truth and for God that teen-agers show. Is his finding God in his desires and in his love for Evelyn a real gift from God, a blissfully lucky but real-world experience or simply justification for the sex that others might find inappropriate outside of marriage?

The characters in the play talk about all of that, about what constitutes God and about numerous ways to view and find God.

Goldberg is a good writer. He captures his characters well. He also knows the territory. What he doesn't convey is just what point he's trying to make. God is, of course, in loving acts, whether they are coital or not. Is that a new? Of course not.

While the play is overwritten and unfocused, the InterAct production which Seth Rozin directs is quite good. Uniformly well acted, the cast (which also includes Michael Nathanson as Eddie's lifelong best friend Ben and Nancy Boykin as Eddie's non-religious mother) brings the characters alive. For all their effort, however, the ultimate affect is of a lot of high-sounding talk that goes nowhere.

The physical production was designed by Tim Duggan (set), Peter Whinnery (lighting), Karen Ann Ledger (costumes) and Matt Callahan (sound).

God of Desire starts out as a coming-of-age story about a interesting kid and then gets stuck after he finds love. The search for God or truth or whatever you want to call the spiritual journey that Eddie is on is often hard to understand, hard to believe and, most important, hard to take.

For tickets to the the InterAct Theatre Company's world premiere of Dick Goldberg's God of Desire, playing through June 6, call 215-568-8079 or visit www.interacttheatre.org