As the battle lines draw ever more heated between the faithful (from Christian crusaders to Islamic Jihadists) and the faithless (obnoxious atheists like Richard Dawkins and pro-war, anti-God Christopher Hitchens), one yearns for some middle ground, some good-humored analysis of religious belief, even if its of the wacky kind. Thats a good reason to check out Barry Smiths solo show Jesus in Montana, which arrives in Seattle with a long tail of critical raves from fringe theater festivals across the U.S. and Canada. The Aspen-based writer-performer has a different perspective on the appeal of religious belief, as this autobiographical story demonstrates. Like a lot of earnest young people, he went looking for Jesus; unlike most of them, he met him, or at least a guy who claimed to be him, in the great state of Montana. He even lived in his basement for a while, and devoted himself to a series of very strange beliefs and behaviors. After three years of this, Smith moved on, and his comic musings, a portrait of the artist as a young religious nut, are reputed to be as funny as they are thoughtful.
Fri., Sept. 21, 8 p.m.; Sat., Sept. 22, 8 p.m., 2007
