Wouldn’t it be lovely to place the blame for all the world’s current woes, from war and inequity to the threat of the climate crisis, at the feet of an almighty creator? Gloria's Gift? both promises and denies that wish.
Scores of inconsistencies leave the characters and plot too worm-riddled to hold together
The play provides us with a god as human character in the form of brassy, swaggering and irritable deity Gloria, who is more than happy to accept responsibility for our creation. The trouble is she tapped out of human affairs after the momentary amusement of making a whole new species in her image and claims the rest of the world’s ills are very firmly on our own shoulders.
Erica Tavares-Kouassi certainly makes this a believable concept. She is an energetic stage presence, preening with over-confidence even as her intended one-woman show begins to crumble around her.
However there are scores of philosophical and theological inconsistencies in Leona McLoughlin’s script that leave the characters and plot too worm-riddled to hold together. An almighty god character with an enviable vocabulary but who’s stumped by simple words like car (they’re initially metal boxes) and has never heard of Wotsits. A lonely and alienated god who finds it incredibly easy to mount a one-woman show and make an instant connection with the audience. These contradictions wrangle. Certainly this take is more inclusive than many others, with a plethora of religions getting a passing mention, but the references are superficial and ultimately god’s true name of Gloria overtly roots us in a Christian context.
There are moments of genuine surprise (don’t worry, no spoilers here!) and some funny gags that draw a giggle or two but overall Nicky Allpress’s direction felt flat. In short, the god as human trope has been done too many times before (most recently perhaps by Zoe Lyon’s in An Act Of God, but arguably going back to the Christian story itself) not to treat the subject with more rigour and imagination.
