SCR Takes a 'Chance'

Ethan (Chance Dean) ponders what his life will become now that his dreams have been destroyed in Jesus Hates Me. Photo by Doug Catiller, True Image Studio.

For the first time in at least a decade, South Coast Repertory will play host to another theatre group when it presents the Chance Theater’s remounting of Jesus Hates Me Feb. 26-28 and March 5-7 in the Nicholas Studio.

Jesus Hates Me is a hilarious and provocative dramedy set at the “Blood of the Lamb” Miniature Golf Course in South Central Texas, where a Wal-Mart mannequin transformed into Jesus on the cross watches over the 17th hole. The play follows Ethan, an ex-high school football star desperate to find identity, sanity, faith and freedom. It covers one unpredictable week in Ethan’s life as he tries to escape from his overzealous, bi-polar mother, a suicidal dishwasher, a pot-smoking cop and a beer-swillin’ good ol’ boy, not to mention the possible love of his life and, of course, the son of God.

The Chance first mounted Wayne Lemon’s play last winter, and the L.A. Times praised the “detailed direction” of Chance Artistic Director Oanh Nguyen, the “superbly evocative set,” “an impressive design effort...and the wonderful cast.” The same cast and crew will be back for the production at SCR.

SCR’s Producing Artistic Director David Emmes says this collaboration provides both theatres with an opportunity to expand their audiences and gives SCR’s adventurous theatre-goers “a taste of something different.” If successful, it could lead to further collaborations with other arts groups.

Tickets are $35 and go on sale January 15 through SCR’s box office. Performances run at 8 p.m. Feb. 26, 27, March 5 and 6, and at 2:30 p.m. Feb. 28 and March 7.

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