IN THE THEATER THESE DAYS, HIGHmindedness is not a very seaworthy trait. Most of the English plays that have sailed across the Atlantic and landed on Broadway of late have been high-tech musicals or dramas ballasted by big-name movie stars. David Hare's Racing Demon--which has no major stars, focuses on two priests in the Church of England and traffics in both theological debate and sociological observation--is therefore an unlikely arrival.
And a welcome one. The drama opens with the Rev. Lionel Espy (Josef Sommer) alone on the stage--or perhaps he is not alone, for we catch him in a moment of...