Review
BIGGER THAN JESUS
Necessary Angel and Wyrd Productions
Starring Rick Miller
Written by Rick Miller and Daniel Brooks
Directed by Daniel Brooks
Runs until March 6
Big Secret Theatre (Epcor Centre)
I didn’t go to Bigger Than Jesus the last time it was performed in Calgary, but in my youth I did go to church a lot – every Sunday, every day during Lent, every holy day of obligation. I mention this not because you need a strong background in Christian tradition to understand Bigger Than Jesus, but those who do will probably get the most out of it.
Opening with the promise of a full Christian liturgy, Rick Miller’s one-man show leads the audience from the blessing to the benediction in what could be the most entertaining mass ever. Of course, a mass just isn’t the same without a little preaching, and Miller certainly does a bit of that. It’s how he preaches that makes Bigger Than Jesus so compelling.
Punctuating this mass with a series of monologues, Miller deftly takes on several characters in an attempt to not only explore the staying power of Christ, but to get audience members to reconsider why they believe what they believe. Whether he is playing himself, a preacher for the Church of Common Sense or one of several versions of The Big J, Miller ambitiously tries to dissect 2,000 years of religious dogma.
Not wanting to alienate the audience, Miller and co-writer Daniel Brooks take great care to lay out expository information early on. It’s a wise move because, while everybody may know Jesus, not everybody knows about him. Although necessary, this segment proves to be the least successful part of the play. With Miller cynically condensing the life of Christ and its aftermath into a brief, entertaining, pseudo-Power Point presentation (with the help of video cameras and a huge screen), Bigger Than Jesus comes very close to being a lecture rather than theatre. Miller offers a spot-on critique of Christian history, the writing of the New Testament and literal interpretations of the Bible, but his delivery is that of a know-it-all theologian, which makes the early scenes a bit of a slog.
Mercifully this is just one of the characters that Miller inhabits and before long the show really takes off. As Miller swaps identities with chameleon-like ease, he also makes good use of several video cameras and a screen that dominates the stage. Where many theatre productions use video as a high-tech crutch, Bigger Than Jesus puts it all in context. When Miller tears up the stage as a gregarious self-realized preacher, the screen works as a subtle condemnation of televangelism. As Miller turns his back to the audience to perform part of the mass in Latin, the videography points out how completely out of touch (and date) the Vatican actually is. When Miller re-creates the Last Supper using Star Wars figures and a Simpsons Pez dispenser, he forces the audience to not only consider Jesus as a historical figure and religious touchstone, but also as a pop-culture icon.
And that would seem to be the goal of the piece. Even the title, Bigger Than Jesus, calls to mind The Beatles – a quartet so iconographic that Miller is able to conjure them by merely sketching a few simple lines. Yet as powerful as The Beatles were (and still are), Miller makes it very clear that 40 years of music stardom is nothing compared to 2,000 years of devoted following, religious upheaval and bloody conflict in the name of one man.
By the time the play comes to an end, the audience has seen several versions of Jesus, each one as plausible as the last. As the mass draws to a close, the clean-cut Miller physically transforms into Christ by simply putting on a moustache, wig and robe. At that moment the look of Jesus becomes more identifiable than his teaching. As this version of Christ addresses the audience, he intersperses do-unto-others preaching with everyday colloquial catchphrases. Just as easily as Miller morphed into Christ, Jesus becomes an ordinary man.
With such simple yet effective staging, it is clear that Brooks and Miller have something to say and know how to say it. But while Bigger Than Jesus aims to make audiences question their take on Christianity, specifically Christ, I couldn’t help wondering who they were hoping their audience would be. As a lapsed Catholic, I was engrossed by the play, but since I shared the same view as the creative team I was left unchanged.
Ironically, those who flock to see Bigger Than Jesus will probably do so having already questioned their faith. As such, the only real criticism I have with the play is that, for all its brilliance, it seems to be preaching to the choir. |
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