A Saskatchewan man is taking his solo living room comedy show across the prairies, diving into the hilarity and heartache of his evangelical pop culture childhood. Tim Bratton, writer and performer in My Little Plastic Jesus, says he grew up within a Pentecostal church and within a very evangelical context. "There was a lot of that that was wonderful and beautiful, but then as I grew up into my 20s, I reflected on some of it and kind of had to take apart some of the understandings of God and Jesus that I had grown up with, and this is my doing that, live on stage," said Bratton. "I hope that this is helpful for other people who are maybe reflecting on the forms of faith they grew up with." .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } Bratton says the show starts with laughter and encouragement for the audience to join in, and then he says he gets into the serious side of things. "[I talk about] the importance of faith and the challenges of faith, and what that has meant for me and perhaps what that means for other people," said Bratton. "I hope people laugh and cry at all the right moments." Bringing comedy to living rooms Originally developed over more than a decade ago by Bratton and Burnt Thicket Theatre, this one-of-a-kind true story has sold out living rooms in Saskatchewan, toured Ontario in 2023, and played to enthusiastic audiences in BC and Alberta in 2024. Now people living in Manitoba will get another chance to experience the show up close, in the most intimate venue of all: the living room. "I really love the intimacy of that setting and the conversations that I have about the show afterwards." Bratton says the response after the show is always different depending on what people's experience with the material is. "Sometimes I have responses from people who are a similar age to me. I was a kid who kind of grew up in the 80s and was a youth in the 90s. So people have that experience where they came from a similar church background," said Bratton. "They often have an identity with a lot of similar things. So I talk about DC talk, and I talk about having a flannel graph in Sunday school, and they identify with everything, and they can laugh along. They get the references." Hearing responses from people who don't have connections On the other hand, he says he also loves responses from people who don't have any connection to the culture that he grew up with. "It's been really fun, especially for me, to share it with, say, some theatre friends who have no religious background. But part of what I hope my play does is it's written in a way to give people access to my experience, to understand it and to reflect on whatever it is that their background is, because we all, at various points in our lives, have to process the kind of culture that we inherited from our communities and from our families and think through that. And so I love when people make those connections for themselves." My Little Plastic Jesus will take place in various living rooms across Winnipeg from now until Nov. 2. To get tickets, visit mylittleplasticjesus.com.