by AMY BARRATT

Recently, I read an article about how Jeb Bush's Florida is the proud home of America's first faith-based penitentiary. Lawtey Correctional is staffed by volunteers from religious groups - mostly Protestant - and the prisoners are expected to be believers. The story immediately made me think of the play Jesus Hopped the A Train which, as it happens, has its Montreal premiere tonight, April 1 at the Monument-National.

First produced off-off Broadway by LAByrinth Theater Company under the direction of Philip Seymour Hoffman, the black comedy by Stephen Adly Guirgis has gone on to international acclaim. The play focuses on two men accused of murder who are being held pending trial at New York's Riker's Island. Religion figures in very different ways in their two stories: Angel Cruz has shot the evangelical preacher he accuses of brainwashing his best friend; Lucius Jenkins is accused of serial rape and murder but has undergone one of those typically American jailhouse conversions. The play asks what place if any God should have in the justice system.

Jay Cutler saw Hoffman's production while he was studying in New York at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute.

"I saw it five times in a row," says the Montrealer, who now divides his time between New York, Montreal and Toronto. "I loved it." So when Cutler founded his own company devoted to fostering a sort of street cultural exchange between Canada and New York, Jesus Hopped was an obvious choice. Tsultrum8's first project was a production of Vittorio Rossi's Little Blood Brother on the Lower East Side.

That revival of his early one-act inspired Rossi to write a film adaptation of the piece, and it was on the set of the film that Cutler met Sid Zanforlin, who is directing Jesus Hopped.

Zanforlin is most recognizable to a certain segment of Montreal society as the former drummer of now-defunct Me Mom & Morgentaler. In recent years he has been working in film in Vancouver and Toronto. He still plays music and claims that "directing and drumming aren't that different. You sit back, watch, listen and make sure the rhythm and pace of the piece doesn't drag. You also make sure each player or actor, is in the moment and their intentions are met by the end of the scene or song."

Cutler is playing the role of Cruz, and Jenkins is played by Kwasi Songui, a local actor who mostly does film work but is thrilled to be sinking his teeth into such a meaty theatre role. A formidable presence on stage whether speaking or singing, Songui was chosen as a Mirror "Noisemaker" back in 1998.

Jesus Hopped the A Train is raw theatre with not just foul language but a lot of racist language in it. "It's not there for shock value," says Cutler, "It's just realism. It's the way people talk."

Jesus Hopped the A Train, April 1-17, 8:30pm, at the Balustrade Space, Monument-National (1152 St-Laurent), $12-$17

November unmemorable

The opening of the Saidye Bronfman Centre and Flicker Productions' A Night in November coincided with Action Week Against Racism. Unfortunately, it's just the sort of well-meaning project you might expect under those circumstances. The fault is not with actor Daniel Giverin, who gives a convincing performance as the Ulsterman who confronts his own and his community's prejudices, but with Marie Jones' text. For Kenneth McCallister, the protagonist in her play, the catalyst for change is a football (soccer) match between Northern Ireland and the Republic that he attends with his hateful old father-in-law.

Seeing the raw hatred in the stands makes him develop empathy for the Catholics, and begin to despise where he comes from; he adopts a superior attitude toward his fellow Protestants which, though perhaps justifiable, strikes me as not at all helpful. He ends up, as one critic put it, "going native." That is, he decides he likes the Catholics better than the Protestants and basically masquerades as one. I found myself thinking, "Goody for you Kenneth, but what's changed?" Surely, really confronting racism means trying to effect change in your community, not just abandoning it for one you like better.

A Night in November runs until April 4 at the Saidye (5170 Côte-Ste-Catherine), 739-7944, $16-$38

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