Metro Pulse/Backstage/Corpus Christi

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What:
Corpus Christi, produced by All Campus Theatre

When:
Feb. 6-8 at 8 p.m.

Where:
Clarence Brown Lab Theatre

Cost:
$5, $4 students. Email [email protected] for more.

Corpus Christi should be publicized on its merits

by Paige M. Travis

Does a "controversial" play deserve more media attention than local theater usually gets? I don't know, but the folks at All Campus Theatre responsible for promoting Terrence McNally's Corpus Christi have done a great job of spinning their play to the local media. A feature-length story produced by WUOT 91.9 and aired during National Public Radio's Morning Edition on Jan. 30 was followed by two front-page stories in the News-Sentinel. All of these stories have focused on the play's controversial portrayal of Jesus and his disciples as gay men and the potential for protest that loomed above this student production.

I have mixed feelings about such hype. Ideally, shouldn't a company promote plays based on their merits, not their potential to offend certain groups or individuals? And shouldn't people come to those plays because of their value, and not to see what all the fuss is about? In this case, there was no fuss until the daily wrote about the protests that took place when the play premiered in New York and London back in the late '90s. Until then, it looked like nobody in Knoxville cared about a small group of UT students presenting a play.

In the past, ACT has been notorious for failing to promote itself. Metro Pulse has never reviewed an ACT show that I know of, although I've seen plenty on my own time. While some shows have been more entertaining than others, I have never been disappointed in an ACT production. The first times I saw The Complete Works of Shakespeare, Abridged and Picasso at the Lapin Agile were at the Clarence Brown Lab Theatre, the 100-seat black box space ACT uses. And having seen more professional productions since, these first small-scale examples still rank as my favorites. In particular, last season's Betty's Summer Vacation by Christopher Durang blew my mind (I have no idea why it wasn't nominated for an Knoxville Area Theatre Coalition award). So why all the hype now?

Knowing that the News-Sentinel and the theater box office had received calls about the play—both for and against it—we didn't know whether to expect picketing or riots on opening night. The sizable crowd eager to enter the small theater was met by about four people holding signs that bore simple messages of dissent, like "Don't mock my savior." Playgoers were offered literature from the representing church. This meager demonstration wasn't news.

The play itself is worthy of attention—not just because McNally has fashioned a metaphor in which Jesus and his followers are gay men persecuted like the early Christians, but because Corpus Christi is one of the most absorbing, emotionally complex, and literary plays being produced in Knoxville. And the young cast does a damn good job with it.

My fears that Corpus would be too political, heavy-handed, or abrupt were totally off base. McNally's concept isn't overly contrived or political. In fact, in the beginning, it's downright hilarious. Jesus, who is called Joshua for most of the play, is born in a roadside motel to an unwed mother. God speaks to Joshua as a game show host in a booming voice with a host of angels oohing and ahhing like a studio audience. Joshua goes to Catholic school, where he has a crush on his poetry teacher, gets picked on by the jocks, and picks a homely girl for his prom date. Lee Lenox was the perfect choice for Joshua. His wide eyes, curly brown hair, and ruddy cheeks give him this virginal, angelic quality. He's shy and nerdy, not at all confident in his role as the son of God. He's the perfectly imperfect human who learns how to become a leader.

Justin Rubenstein, as Judas, demands attention every moment he is on stage. He has a cocksure attitude and smoldering sexuality—this is the man who draws Joshua into the deepest intimacy and then betrays him, coldly and cruelly. What Marlon Brando did for the world of theater in A Streetcar Named Desire, Rubenstein does for Corpus Christi. Judas is complex, misunderstood, perhaps even pitiful, and Rubenstein brings every facet alive.

Another stand-out performance is delivered by Mike Folks, who scared the bejeezus out of viewers as a killer in ACT's Betty's Summer Vacation. Folks plays Mary, Joshua's chain-smoking virgin mother, plus Matthew, the disciples' lawyer, plus a priest who gets beat up by Jesus in the temple. He boldly swings from wild comedy to understated drama with impressive ease.

Besides a few tables and props, there really is no set to speak of, which benefits the play to some extent; most everything exists in the imagination. McNally's text shifts back and forth through space and time. Scripture quoted verbatim is sewn together with modern-day lingo. Director Joseph Beuerlein doesn't force this play or his actors to be anything unbelievable, and he keeps the flow of the play natural and simple, like a Bible story.

Corpus Christi starts out amusingly, but if you know anything about Jesus' story, you know there are few laughs at the end. Here, the parallel between the persecution of Jesus and gays is clear. Out of fear of being connected to him, Joshua's friends abandon him. He is beaten and dragged through the streets by soldiers. Then they nail him to a big wooden cross, left to weep and choke and cry out to God. This scene is the most upsetting, and moving, thing I've ever seen on stage.

Maybe men kissing men in a play about Jesus still makes front-page news. And maybe it doesn't matter what brings people out to see a work of theater, as long as they show up with open minds. Corpus Christi taught me more about Jesus' philosophy— to express your love for God by loving each other—than anything taught by Christians who hand out hellfire and brimstone tracts or holler and thump big Bibles in the Old City. This reverent and very spiritual play is about love and faith, the fallibility of humanity and our ability to transcend and aspire to be better than ourselves. If that's a controversial message in this day and time, then I'm definitely worried about our souls.