What’s the No. 1 rule of etiquette to help avoid discord? Never discuss religion or politics. With that in mind, it’s safe to say that playwright Scott Carter is an etiquette felon. But audiences who see Northlight Theatre’s production of Carter’s “The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord,” might well thank Carter for his disregard of the rules.
Making its Midwest debut, “Discord,” on stage May 6 to June 12, is a politics-and-religion-infused smackdown between Thomas Jefferson, Leo Tolstoy and Charles Dickens. All three men have penned a version of the Gospels, and their interpretation of Jesus’ teachings make for a ferocious debate during the 85-minute drama.
“Each man had a completely different take on the Bible,” says Carter. “Jefferson had that steely intellectualism — took out all the miracles and the magic, focused solely on reason and action as prompted by Jesus’ teachings. Dickens is about morality and emotion, just like in his novels.” And the anarchist Tolstoy? “His is all about the mystery and the things we cannot know,” says Carter.
Carter knows about pointed political discussion. For over 25 years, he’s been a writer and executive producer on TV shows such as “Politically Incorrect” and “Real Time with Bill Maher,” picking up eight Emmys along the way.
“Discord” sticks three people in a room with no exit, and forces them to contend with each other. Over the course of that journey, “Discord” tackles life’s three big conundrums: Why are we here? What should we be doing while we’re here? What happens to us when we’re not here anymore? Spoiler alert: There are no definitive answers. But it’s not just abstract existential queries the power trio delve.
“They discuss their lives as well,” Director Kimberly Senior says. “And they all find times when what they maintained they believed didn’t match with the way they actually behaved.”
Take Dickens, for example. His novels were scathing condemnations of selfishness, cruelty and the unspeakable abuses heaped on children damned to England’s workhouses. Through books such as “A Christmas Carol,” “Oliver Twist” and “The Old Curiosity Shop,” Dickens preached a gospel of compassion, family loyalty and generosity.
“When Dickens separated from his wife, he also forbade his own children from contacting her,” points out Jeff Parker, who plays the writer. “His personal life was at odds with the compassion he showed in his writing.”
Carter started wrestling with the way he was living his own life 29 years ago, when an asthma attack reduced his lung capacity to 11 percent, very nearly killing him.
“The big questions — how do you live, what do you believe, what kind of person do you want to be — they’re easy to postpone when we’re young and healthy and think you know everything and we have forever. Not so much when you’re staring death in the face, ” he says. “I made a compact with the universe. Let me live and I will start listening. Before the attack, I would have stopped cold anyone who tried to talk to me about God or religion or Jesus or the afterlife. My promise was I’d no longer do that. I’d keep an open mind and agree to the possibility of learning.”
‘The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord’
When: May 6–June 12
Where: Northlight Theatre, 9501 N. Skokie Blvd., Skokie
Contact:847-673-6300; www.Northlight.org
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