Smote This, A Comedy About God ...and Other Serious $HT*

March 22 – May 12, 2024 Thomas Theatre

Suitability and Accessibility Playwright's Notes Creative Team Cast The Venue Education Events

One Black man’s reckoning with legacy and religion

In this one-man comedy, Rodney Gardiner tries to abandon God despite his deeply Christian roots. For this undocumented Black boy growing up in tumultuous 1980s Miami, racial unrest, an immigration crisis, and the drug war is just another Tuesday. Smote This is an entertaining web of stories and tangents, and OSF is delighted to welcome back Rodney Gardiner, who has thrilled our audiences for years in everything from musicals to Shakespeare.

(Approximate running time: 1 hour and 5 minutes, with no intermission.)

Suitability Suggestions

This funny, poignant piece about loss and growing up Caribbean Black contains some profanity, sexual references, and remembrances of being beaten as a child, and will be best suited for prepared students able to handle the content.

For additional content warnings regarding violence or graphic depictions that may be upsetting to some audience members, please see our Content Warnings page (may contain spoilers).

Accessibility

The Thomas Theatre is outfitted with an elevator to the theatre level.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is committed to accessibility. We recognize the needs of persons with disabilities and strive to make our facilities and productions accessible to all. Please visit our Accessibility page for details about 2024 programs and services as they develop.

Smote This, A Comedy About God ...and Other Serious $HT* | Official Trailer

Immerse

Photo: Smote This, A Comedy About God ...and Other Serious $HT*

A person standingin front of a painting of Jesus with his arm in front of his chest.

Photo: Smote This, A Comedy About God ...and Other Serious $HT*

A person standing in front of a projection of magazines covers.

Photo: Smote This, A Comedy About God ...and Other Serious $HT*

A person standing in a leaning position with his fist by his face.

Photo: Smote This, A Comedy About God ...and Other Serious $HT*

A person standing holding a microphone stand in one hand and the microphone in the other.

Photo: Smote This, A Comedy About God ...and Other Serious $HT*

Photo: Smote This, A Comedy About God ...and Other Serious $HT*

A person standing frowning looking into the distance.

Photo: Smote This, A Comedy About God ...and Other Serious $HT*

A person in the distance standing in front of blue screen.

Photo: Smote This, A Comedy About God ...and Other Serious $HT*

Playwright’s Notes

Dear reader,

I want you to know that I have every intention of giving you the show of a lifetime, the show you deserve. The trouble is, I have been met with great obstacles from the powers that be. I’ve argued for a chorus of golden-voiced singers and an army of distractingly toned dancers; alike, fire eaters and lion tamers. I even offered a compromise of settling for a VW Bug packed with a mere fourteen clowns, but alas, at the end of the day I was told by producers, “dude…really?”

They’ve left me with no choice but to present you with all I have left at this point, a simple story of one black man’s struggle to reconcile with his religion, his grief, and legacy itself. I tried to aggrandize a bit with tales of performing duties as a fighter pilot and secret spy missions at the Kremlin, but those were disproved and forcibly edited. My stories of triumph as a diplomat in West Africa and South America met the same fate. I will admit to being confused by all of this. I thought we were firmly in a world of alternative facts.

There are no car chases, intergalactic warfare, no government secrets to blow the whistle on. I’m fear-stricken by the naked task of telling this personal story honestly. Rest assured that at this moment I am somewhere looking in the mirror and asking myself, “dude…really?” But someone, somewhere once wrote, “Cowards die many times before their death; The valiant never taste of death but once.” All that said, I hope this show makes all of our truths just a little bit less scary.

—Rodney Gardiner