Posted on 04/11/2006 12:00:43 PM PDT by Tamar1973
Rick Miller's Bigger than Jesus is exhilarating, thought-provoking theatre.
The show, now playing at the Citadel's Rice Theatre, is neither bloated theological debate nor a theatrical mugging of organized religion. In fact, there are moments of deep spirituality here generated, in no small part, by the performer's obvious love for the language and majesty of the Bible and the Roman Catholic Mass.
That is, between his gleefully irreverent knocks on religious attitudes that have grown encrusted and twisted until they can be used to exterminate anyone who disagrees with the "one true way.'' Sadly, a case might be made that for the past 2,000 years more people have slaughtered in the name of Jesus than any other.
Bigger than Jesus is a co-production of Wyrd Theatre with the Necessary Angel Theatre Company.
In this idea-packed, 75-minute show, Miller announces cheerfully, "I will be your Jesus for the evening,'' and proceeds to dissect the faith of his youth. He ingeniously uses cameras, projections and special effects to open the small, white box of the Rice into a landscape of the mind.
Don't worry if you are neither Catholic nor Christian, because Miller, and his co-writer and collaborator Daniel Brooks, (a Jew) speak as much to the human spirit as Christian theology.
As befitting the creator of the one-man, multi-voiced MacHomer, in which the cast of The Simpsons play all the roles in Shakespeare's Macbeth, Miller plays many roles with chameleon-like ability. He's a New York Jewish academic who underlines the importance of storytelling in the myths of the Bible, a Southern revivalist of the Church of Rational Thought who uses the familiar style to say the most outrageous things about accepted fundamentalist beliefs and Jesus himself as an obsequious flight attendant on a miracle-filled flight to Jerusalem.
He sometimes mixes the sacred with the profane as when he restages the Last Supper using a Jesus figurine, Judy Garland and the Tin Man and Star Wars action figures. You think Luke had problems with his dad? All Darth Vader wanted him to do was come over to the dark side. Jesus' Dad set him up for excruciating torture and crucifixion.
A Homer Pez dispenser stands in for Judas.
The John Lennon figure is, of course, bigger than Jesus.
Finally, Miller transforms himself (in a very powerful and theatrical transubstantiation) into a very reasonable facsimile of the idealized Jesus we know from Christmas cards. He comes forward to tell us of his message in the New Testament - that we should love each other. And then, runs out of things to say. Mostly, I suspect, because in his simple message of love, he has said it all.
I don't think many of a fundamental bent will take in this show. It certainly doesn't speak to closed minds. But anyone willing to entertain new ideas and to reinvigorate their relationship with the creator - in the presence of a genial, charismatic and often abrasively funny guide - it doesn't get much better than this.
Missing this one would be a sin.
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CENTRE STAGE
PLAY TIME: Bigger than Jesus.
COMPANY: At the Citadel's Rice Theatre through April 23.
COLIN SAYS: 'Missing this one would be a sin.'
CURTAIN CALL: 4 SUNS (out of 5)
Oh Canada, you bloated carcass of idiotic liberalism, who will feed you when you burst? We will. That's what I dislike about you.
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