'Discord' brings historial figures, the gospels and humor together

If it hadn’t been for Scott Carter’s brush with death, Arizona Theatre Company’s next play might never have been written.

The former Tucsonan’s comedy with philosophical overtones, “The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord,” opens in previews Saturday. It comes to Tucson with the same director and two of the three cast members from the acclaimed 2014 production at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles.

And it all started back in 1986, when an asthma attack put Carter in a hospital for a week.

He left with a determination to investigate a spiritual base.

“I was checking out things I had either been indifferent or hostile to,” said Carter, one of the founding members of Tucson’s Invisible Theatre and the executive producer of “Real Time With Bill Maher."

That meant opening his doors to Jehovah’s Witnesses, listening to whomever wanted to talk about Jesus, the Bible, Buddha. Carter allowed himself to be a sponge, soaking in and studying what others believed.

A few years later, still with that open heart and mind, he came across Bill Moyers’ PBS show, “A World of Ideas.” He was interviewing the Rev. Forrester Church, who talked about Thomas Jefferson’s bible.

Jefferson had gone through the gospels and cut out everything but the passages he liked. He called it “The Philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth.” Jefferson believed in the teachings of Christ, but felt the Bible was full of a lot of hooey, too.

Then Carter came across Charles Dickens’ “The Life of Our Lord” — the author’s version of the gospels, written for his children.

“Dickens and Jefferson were the complete opposite,” said Carter. He thought he might have a play there.

Then he discovered Tolstoy also has a version of the gospels.

“It was one of those moments where you go ‘eureka,’ but you are also cursed,” he recalled.

“I could get to the finish line with Jefferson and Dickens, but if I add Tolstoy, it’s going to move me back three years.”

Still, he added the character. Then he had a reading of the piece where actress Shirley MacLaine was present.

“She lobbied me to do a new draft and include Isaac Newton,” he said. Newton had his take on the gospels, as well.

But Carter wasn’t about to start again.

“I said, ‘you know what, I’ve been doing this now for two decades. I’ve gotta stop at some point.’ I’ve got three. Three’s a good number — it’s the trinity, it’s the rhythm of jokes. If I keep enlarging the premise, the work itself will never get finished.”

It took 23 years, but it got finished.

In “Discord,” Jefferson, Tolstoy and Dickens are in a room in the afterlife, waiting to see what’s next. And they are stuck with each other.

All the men are used to being in control, not being questioned. Naturally, a fine debate breaks out, full of drama, anger, lots of humor, and the different versions of the gospels.

Carter said he sometimes explains that it’s the opposite of Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot.”

“In ‘Waiting for Godot,’ … you are better off than the bums on stage. They don’t know where they are going to sleep that night, where their next meal is coming from, and they are waiting for Mr. Godot. But two hours later, everyone gets to say, ‘we are these bums; we are really like them.’”

“Discord,” he said, has three lofty, historical characters.

“At the beginning of the play there is a sense they are higher than us,” he said.

“My goal is, by the end, we feel a bond of humanity with all three of them.”

In 2014, it premiered at Los Angeles’ NoHo Arts Center and it was a hit.

“I had always thought I would feel jubilant if there were ever a first night with people in costumes and who had learned their lines,” said Carter.

“More, I had the feeling of relief. There were periods of time where I thought I’d spent a tremendous amount of time on something that was never going to work out, it’s never going to be stage worthy, no one’s going to embrace it, audiences will be bored by it. And to get it into a place where it works — I just felt this relief that I had not misspent months and years of my life.”

Indeed he hadn’t.

Later that year, it opened at the Geffen. Reviews were glowing. It was extended a number of times. ATC and a few other theaters put it on their 2015-16 season. Other companies are signing on for next season.

“Now I have a sense of encouragement,” said Carter, who is working on a couple of plays, including a companion piece to “Discord,” called “Harmony.”

“Now I can take more risks because my past risks have paid off.”