If you want a sense of what Janine Nabers‘s Welcome to Jesus aspires to be—its ideal Platonic form—take a look at the Jordan Peele movie Get Out. The two productions have an awful lot in common—except that, where Get Out is a nasty-great piece of satire, there’s not much reason to come to Jesus, running now at American Theater Company.
Out of the woods and into this misery walks Him (yes, that’s as much of a name as he gets), a mysterious black teen who, it happens, can throw a football hard, far, and accurately. Somehow all known league participation rules get waived, along with anything resembling official procedures they may have in Texas regarding the sudden appearance of nameless minors, and Him becomes the new Paul Jr.
Through 12/3: Thu-Fri 8 PM, Sat 2 and 8 PM, Sun 2 PM American Theater Company 1909 W. Byron 773-409-4125atcweb.org $38
