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After all, Corpus Christi combines religion and homosexuality, an explosive mixture anywhere but certainly in the performing arts. In fact, the performing history of Corpus Christi has been one controversy after another. The New York City premiere in 1998 was marked by vocal attacks from the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights and threats to burn the theater and kill the playwright from less dainty opponents. When the frightened Manhattan Theater Club canceled Corpus Christi, protests from art lovers and free-speech enthusiasts forced the Club to reschedule the play. (It was a sellout.) Not to be outdone by Christian amateurs, the British Muslim group Al-Muhajiroun (The Defenders of the Messenger Jesus) pronounced a Fatwa (death sentence) on the now twice-cursed McNally, after his play opened in London.
Meanwhile, McNally's preface to his published play gives us his own spin on the matter: "If a divinity does not belong to all people, He is not created in our image as much as we are created in His, then He is less a true divinity for all men to believe than He is a particular religion's secular definition of what a divinity should be for the needs of its followers. Jesus Christ belongs to all of us because He is all of us. Unfortunately, not everyone believes in that." You're telling me! Alerted by the ever-watchful Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, Florida state legislators were quick to attack a play they were not personally familiar with. "People at FAU have to realize this is offensive to about 80 percent of the people in Florida," said State Senator Skip Campbell. "For anyone who's a Christian, it's very offensive", agreed Sen. Debby Sanderson, an FAU graduate. Other state solons called Corpus Christi "tasteless", "bigoted" and a sign of "anti-Christian bias in academia". Sen. Dan Webster, more ominously, warned of financial repercussions against FAU: "We need to be asking--is this one of our priorities? We've already had to cut a lot of funding. Maybe the school's art and cultural program funds are better spent somewhere else." All this was enough to scare FAU President Anthony Catanese, who was the recipient of a half-dozen outraged legislative phone calls. Though Catanese defended FAU's production of Corpus Christi "under the principles of academic freedom", he also promised to create a committee that would review policies and procedures for future "controversial" events. Catanese also said that he would not see the play (which opened March 28th and closed on March 31st) and would advise others to avoid it as well. But Corpus Christi was not without its defenders, even in the Legislature. "The last thing we want to do is to censor one of the last great marketplaces of ideas, a public university," said Sen. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, one of the last liberals in Tallahassee. "I am scared when anyone tries to use a political position to enforce censorship," agreed FAU Faculty Senate president Fred Hoffmann, who called the legislative hoopla a "gross overreaction." Fred Fejes, an openly-gay FAU professor, was alarmed by the "contention that being gay and being Christian are mutually exclusive".
In the end the FAU production of Corpus Christi came and went, and the State Legislature did not "punish" FAU by cutting its allowance. But academic freedom suffered nonetheless. Florida state universities will think twice before staging a play that criticizes religious bigotry, especially within a gay content. Critics of Terrence McNally's play accuse him of anti-religious bigotry, yet they are willing to exercise bigotry against those who are different from them, or who disagree with their views. At the end of Corpus Christi, Joshua/Jesus is "crucified" by gay bashers who work in collusion with a government that wants to rid society of homosexuality. Too close to home, perhaps, for some critics. Jesse Monteagudo is a freelance writer who lives in South Florida with his domestic partner. He can be reached at jessemonteagudo@aol.com |
Scene from an earlier adaptation of Terrence McNally's Corpus Christi 
Christ talks with God as the apostles wait in Corpus Christi
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