Hip-hop musical raps about God in a two part Biblical tale

God and Nietzsche are getting their freak on, with a little help from Shakespeare.

The pair debut as rappers in Job: The Hip-Hop Saga, a two-part musical currently running at the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto. Along with biblical interpretation and existentialist musings, Job brings dope beats to the tradition of Elizabethan verse drama. (That's rhyming, yo).

Jerome Saibil and Eli Batalion, the play's 22-year old co-writers, producers, and actors, are trying to move hip-hop fans into the theatre, while showing theatre-goers hip-hop's intellectual merits. They see their mission accomplished when they perform to improbable audiences.

"We've done sold-out shows for 200 people where everyone's over 65 years old. I don't think DMX and Redman ever had to do that- rap in front of the 'blue rinse brigade'," quipped Saibil.

Saibil was flattered to learn that in a South Carolina theatre, the play drew the most racially diverse audience the theatre's artistic director had ever had seen.

Job works hard to challenge black-and-white definitions, both of its audience and its characters. The play is set in a music industry embroiled by politics and rivalries, where supposed 'good guys' sometimes behave questionably.

Saibil and Batalion studied the Book of Job in high school in Montreal, and were struck by the ambiguity of the story's main 'good guy.'

"It seems that God is a real asshole because he's testing an innocent man by punishing him for something he hasn't done," said Saibil of the biblical story. "Usually God is benevolent and fair, and it's hard to see where the fairness is in the Job story."

This question leads Cain and Abel, the play's MC's, to the Nietzschean idea that people should define their own values, and not follow those prescribed by a higher power. Saibil explained that the play tries to present Nietzsche with caution. "If we listen to Nietzsche, are we really creating [a value system] for ourselves or are we Nietzscheans?" said Saibil.

Job was written for the 2002 Fringe Festival in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and Winnipeg, where it received critical acclaim. Saibil and Batalion wrote a sequel, now incorporated as Act 2, one year later.

They are currently negotiating for the play to be staged at the fringe festival in Edinburgh and off-Broadway in New York.

Saibil and Batalion have their own production company called Foque Dans La Tete, whose mission is to create new and surprising versions of traditional art forms, while also offering delicious entertainment. "I believe the point of life is to make a significant contribution to the universe, change shit up," said Saibil. "You have an idea in your mental realm- it's a private idea of yours. …If it's something that you believe in … get it out there into the public realm so that everyone else can receive it into their little private realms and make it their own."

Job runs until December 14.

— Dafna Izenberg