The Gamm Theatre's Tony Estrella is no stranger to controversy. He's always picking plays that shake up our notion of the world. But nothing he has done so far is quite so provocative as "Paul" a new play by Howard Brenton that makes the most sacred tenets of Christendom out to be a lie.

In Brenton's well-crafted play, the conversion of St. Paul is all a hoax perpetrated by a Jesus who survived the crucifixion and hid out in the desert until his death 20 years later. Paul, before his blinding vision on the road to Damascus, was of course Saul of Tarsus, rabid persecutor of Jesus' followers. And a badly wounded Jesus sets out to stop him.

Far fetched? Perhaps to believers. But to the open minded, the doubters, Brenton's revisionist look at the Biblical account of St Paul's life and teachings makes for a heck of a tale. It's a brilliant piece of writing that translates into a fascinating night of theater.

Add to that some terrific acting from the likes of Alexander Platt as a fanatical Paul, and Kelby T. Akin as the oily Roman emperor Nero, and you have a winner of a show, one of best things the Gamm has done this season.

The play opens with a shackled Paul sitting in a Roman jail awaiting his execution. He has spent his life preaching the gospel and now his luck as run out.

Then we jump back 30 years to find Saul carrying out his campaign against the cult of "Yeshua people," as Brenton calls the early followers of Jesus. Saul, a Jew, fears the cult members are a threat to the temple, to the status quo. But as he makes his way to Damascus to snuff out a community of Christians, he is brought to his knees by a vision of the crucified Jesus that leaves him sightless for a time. It's an experience that turns him into Jesus' biggest fan.

But Brenton suggests that Jesus was simply trying to teach Paul a lesson, and that Paul, who history believes suffered from epilepsy, had a seizure during the encounter that caused the blinding light, that made him think he was witnessing the miracle of Jesus risen from the dead.

If that weren't blasphemous enough, the cast of characters includes a tarty, toilet-mouthed Mary Magdalene as Jesus' wife, whom he married just to spite his well-to-do parents. She can't stand what people are making him out to be.

Brenton also introduces us to Peter, who was in on the hoax. He ends up in the same jail cell with Paul facing death. It is at that point that Peter tells Paul the real story.

"Do you ever think you might be wrong about all you have done?" asks Peter.

Yes, there is a certain shock value to Brenton's play, but there's also a lot of truth to his message that the "teachings are good," as Peter says. "Isn't it enough that they tell us how to live?" You don't need miracles, in other words, to appreciate the Sermon on the Mount.

We might feel sorry for Paul if the play didn't make him out to be such an unbalanced fanatic, preaching the resurrection and the imminent end of the world. In Pratt's hands, he's a prudish, pig-headed sort, who even in the end won't listen to the truth.

But the character who really sizzles is Akin's Nero, who visits Paul on the eve of his death. He is almost naked, coated in white grease paint and looking like a marble statue from antiquity. And he commands the stage, with a mix of charm and malevolence.

In other roles, Gamm newcomer Cedric Lilly is a very human Jesus, and Jim O'Brien stood out as Peter, a man who wants to believe but can't. Anthony Goes is a solid Barnabas, Paul's sidekick who like Paul went through his own conversion. And Karen Carpenter is all street as Mary Magdalene.

Michael McGarty's set of metal bars looks like a giant cage, perfect for locking up a would-be saint.

Again, Brenton's play may seem heretical to the faithful. But it does say a lot about the role of faith in our modern age, about how we can relate to ancient beliefs in the 21st century.

"Paul" runs through April 17 at the Sandra-Feinstein Gamm Theater, 172 Exchange St., Pawtucket. Tickets are $30-$40. Call (401) 723-4266, or visit www.gammtheatre.org.