Corpus Christi

Can it be that Terrence McNally's controversial Corpus Christi, his "gay Jesus" play in which the Christ-like hero is homosexual, has been performed nowhere else in this country except Louisville, Kentucky, nearly a year after its contentious opening last October at New York's Manhattan Theater Club? Gilbert Parker, McNally's agent, confirmed that the work will be done at the Edinburgh Festival this year but knew of no other U.S. performances besides director Don Cox's staging in Louisville of this homophobia challenging, poster play of the culture wars. Nor did anyone at Dramatists Play Service. Protesters from fundamentalist churches and anti-gay groups also appeared outside the Artswatch storefront space in Louisville but were relatively subdued.

Unlike New York, there were no police lines set up to keep pro- and anti-demonstrators apart, though police did keep watch and ensured that the entrance was not blocked. Nor did playgoers have to pass through metal detectors before taking their seats. Cox, a former drama teacher and director who has worked in New York, Boston, Washington, D. C., and Los Angeles, moved from California to Louisville because of "a wonderful relationship" and a job he hesitated to reveal. He dedicated the play to the memory of Matthew Shepard, the college student "slaughtered in his youth for the crime of being gay" in Laramie, Wyoming last October about the time McNally's play was premiering in New York. Cox said the Louisville protests have turned the play into "a conversation about free speech" as well. In the close confines of Artswatch, the play took on a power that for this viewer was lacking in the New York production.

The cast of local actors, recruited by Cox from auditions and personal knowledge, was exceptional. Set in modern-day Corpus Christi, Texas, where McNally grew up, the play deals with 13 young men, 12 of whom follow the 13th man called Joshua (because "this is Texas and Jesus would sound too Mexican"). The story traces Joshua's life from nativity to crucifixion. Handsome and charismatic Eli Keel as Joshua brilliantly conveyed every nuance of his character. Gil Fitzgerald King was faultless as Judas, Joshua's first gay lover and his betrayer. With its simulated (mostly heterosexual) sex scenes, strong black humor, portrayals of sadistic and hypocritical religious types, sly musical jokes, a same-sex marriage ceremony, and no shortage of four-letter words Corpus Christi doesn't shy away from much of anything. That's in line with the observation by Judas that "people can't stand the truth; the truth is brutal." But the in-your-face episodes alternate with quiet, poetic moments illustrating that "all men are divine" -- the secret Joshua seeks to share with people.

In the outstanding ensemble Cox has assembled, all but Keel as Joshua and King as Judas played multiple roles ranging from God and Lazarus to various women and a go-go boy. The versatile Joey Pate as Bartholomew garnered special attention and praise in portraying the greatest number: motel manager, Peggy Powell, nun, Roman centurion, James Dean, and Simon of Cyrene.