Theater review: Corpus Christi at Cathedral of Hope of Dallas

by Christopher Soden of Christopher Soden, Dallas GLBT Arts Examiner

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While it is by no means flawless, it is alarming how genuinely, trenchantly moving this outre' piece really is.

It’s not as bad as it was, but there was a time when many of my gay friends couldn’t understand why I’d bring God or religion into the conversation, and it was hard to blame them. Being gay myself, I understood the profound alienation that can result when numerous Christians feel free (and indeed, driven) to harass, persecute and in general, make your life miserable. All while using God to conceal their vindictive motives. When so many Christians make it a point to treat you like an interloper, it’s easy to comprehend why so many members of the GLBT Community would feel unwelcome in church, and excluded from the miraculous life of Jesus Christ. Embracing this “revelation” explains much of the motivation behind Terence McNally’s version of the Christ story, Corpus Christi (playing at the Cathedral of Hope in Dallas through June 6). By making Jesus gay, it helps to heal the unconscionable and seemingly endless wounds inflicted on queer folk, in the name of the Deity.

It’s crucial not to over-simplify the achievement of Corpus Christi. In it, McNally strives to express the upshot of Jesus’ ministry in contemporary, earnest, direct, secular language while in no way diminishing the spiritual impact. In other words, he seeks to communicate the essence of Christ’s message while cloaking none of it in mysterious, ecclesiastical diction. The milieu shifts from the 2000+ years ago to present day Corpus Christi. Or perhaps it poses the question: What if Jesus were born today, in a fairly conservative setting, and what if he were gay? Sometimes this convergence and vacillation between centuries works better than others (it took a few minutes at the outset to get my bearings) but when you consider that God’s son was born into a world that wasn’t unequivocally thrilled to receive him, it can give you pause. For quite awhile now, theatrical troupes have been modernizing the matrix of Shakespearean and Ancient Greek plays; why not this one?

I’d be lying if I said the effect wasn’t jarring. Hearing the 21st century colloquialisms (especially the homophobic slurs) is unnerving and difficult to reconcile to what most of us consider to be sacrosanct content. But part of McNally’s intention is to make the truth of Jesus’ mission accessible to us today, as adults living in a world that can be vicious, destructive, contemptuous, and vile. McNally’s Jesus (called Joshua in the play) preaches the divinity present in all of us, and while He isn’t above rebuking the sinful, He also refutes personal superiority or any elemental difference Himself and the rest of humanity.

Everyone is ordinary, he explains, and everyone is special. I’m groping here, but McNally wants us to fully appreciate the explosive and poignant effect Jesus had on His Apostles and mankind. For that reason, McNally avoids anything that sounds remotely ecclesiastical or didactic. He isn’t toning down Christ’s spiritual radiance, he’s depicting a man who taught it’s a grace we all share.

I’m not sure everything that happens in Corpus Christi can be chalked up to audacity, or when it can, if it simply springs from McNally’s need to shake us up. To compel us. Like Godspell, the Jesus musical written in the '70s, it begins with a group of performers who are baptized (i.e. initiated) before us, in this case, explaining what the Apostle they are playing did for a living. Like Godspell, they sort of create the gospel stories (and also stuff that never happened in the gospels) from scratch, using minimal props, costumes, and a great deal of levity. None of this is intended disrespectfully (though a couple of instances may have been pushing it) and serves to make the material less formal. As any good Christian knows, the story of Jesus of Nazareth is rife with pain and despair, and Corpus Christi certainly doesn’t back away from this. I’m thinking by alleviating the gravitas, McNally is hoping to mitigate our defenses.

I think you’d have to be blind not to grasp that Corpus Christi has been conceived in the queer vernacular. There may even be analogies made to the martyrdom of Jesus and the ongoing disgrace of queer persecution. Mary Magdalene has been recast as a gay hustler and he’s no prissy twink ala The Birdcage. Like God’s Trombones or Carmen Jones, Corpus Christi is a narrative reconceived in the culture of a minority too often deprived of access to it. I can’t emphasize this strongly enough, but there is far more to Corpus Christi than the gay aspect. And while it is by no means flawless, it is alarming how genuinely, trenchantly moving this outre' piece really is. McNally has created a drama that captures the rapture and agony of Jesus, as well as the life of all sentient, spiritual seekers of truth. It might easily have tanked. But for all its improbability and raucous humor, it connects, and, occasionally, soars.

This review previously appeared on Examiner.com.

Christopher Soden is a theater critic who also writes for John Garcia's The Column.

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