Ready to end it all

For its new production, “Oh God,” Chester Theatre Company has teamed with Israeli Stage, which is not based in Israel but in Boston, and which was founded a few years back by 27-year-old Guy Ben-Aharon, an Israeli-born American dismayed by the fact that Israeli arts are too often obscured by politics (“Israel has a rich culture and one of the highest per capita attendance for stage”).

Written by the late Israeli playwright Anat Gov, “Oh God” centers around Ella, a psychotherapist and single mother who is having doubts about her own faith, and a very depressed God, who shows up a her office as a floundering patient intent on having just one session — so desperate has the Deity become that either Ella will succeed in lifting Him out of His cosmic funk or He will put an end to His greatest – and most disappointing — creation (the play was actually written before this year’s presidential candidates were determined).

“We are thrilled to partner with Israeli Stage to bring this remarkable play to our audience,” says CTC artistic director Daniel Elihu Kramer. “‘Oh God’ is both a delight and a deeply thoughtful exploration of what it means to be human.”

The play runs through July 24 at Chester Town Hall. Showtimes are 8 p.m. Sat., Wed., Thurs., and 2 p.m. Fri., Sun., and Thurs. Talkbacks follow the July 16 and 23 shows and the 2 p.m. matinee July 21. Panel discussion follows July 17 matinee. Cast conversations follow the July 15 and July 22 matinees

$37.50 general; $10 students and Chester residents. www.chestertheatre.org, 800-595-4849

‘Citizen Kane’ talking points

1. Despite its repeated canonization as “The Greatest Movie of All Time,” “Citizen Kane” was panned by such astute sensibilities as James Agee, W.H. Auden and Jorge Luis Borges.

2. Orson Welles developed his groundbreaking cinematographic techniques for the 1941 film in large part by watching John Ford’s “Stage Coach” a total of 40 times.

3. William Randolph Hearst was so enraged by the film that he banned every newspaper and radio station in his media empire from advertising, reviewing — or even mentioning — it (which crippled the picture at the box office) .

4. In 1971 influential critic Pauline Kael wrote a book-length essay belittling Welles’ contributions to the final product and elevating those of screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz. But then film scholar Robert Carringer showed that Kael was all wet, concluding that “the full evidence reveals that Welles’ contribution to the “Citizen Kane” script was not only substantial but definitive.”

5. “Rosebud,” the sled, was invented by Mankiewicz based on his own childhood, which was irrevocably damaged when a treasured bicycle was stolen while he was at the library.

6. “Rosebud,” the name, was taken from a horse Mankiewitz bet on in the 1941 Kentucky Derby (it won).

Amherst Cinema gives you a chance to see what all the fuss was (and is) about when it screens a restored version of the classic Sunday at 2 p.m. and Tuesday at 7 p.m. as part of its Orson Welles Retrospective. $8.75/$9.75. amherstcinema.org

— Dan DeNicola