Sun. Sept. 30

 Journalists do love plays and films about journalists, let's face it. And we're probably even more suckers for those works when the protagonist is, shall we say, ethically challenged. They don't get much more ethically challenged then Augustine Early, played by Campbell Scott at the Calderwood Pavilion in "The Atheist." (It was written by Boston playwright Ronan Noone and Scott did a reading of it last year; he liked doing it so much he's back for a run that goes to the end of the month.) Early, as he tells us early on, lost his faith in God when he was a dirt poor Southern child, growing up with his mom in a trailer.  Losing your faith, he notes, gives you "carte blanche" to go about the world without much regard for your fellow man - to pursue your own dreams and schemes with unmitigated zest and gall. Which means our handsome blonde hero is a cad, a deceptive SOB and, also something of a charmer. He's also "always angry, always on edge." Early has decided that fame is his goal and journalism is his path. Particularly, tabloid style journalism. The big story he stumbles into concerns a congressman who has been taking secret bathroom and bedroom videos of the young women he rents a small house to. One of those women is Jenny, whom Early dates and makes passionate love with at that house. Soon, he discovers a tiny camera. This does not displease him. His wheels turn and he devises a plot to a) rise up in the journalism world, and b) take down whoever he needs to take down in the process.
This is a one-man play with a simple, stark stage set. A desk and a chair. A video camera stage right, which occasionally projects Scott's image onto a rear screen. Scott, who's acted in more than 50 films and tv films, totes a diary with notes in it. He has quite a wordy task - to convey the complexity and deviousness of this man, while making him not an unlikable companion for 80 minutes. This, he does. (Scott projected much better in Act 2 the night we saw the play. He is un-miked and during the First Act, you sometimes had to strain to hear his more soft-spoken bits.) There's a lot of bittersweet humor - this Early fella is clever and when he recounts taking on his boss or duping Jenny or coralling the congressman, you find yourself rooting for him to succeed. Sort of. But at his core he's an opportunistic sociopath. He carries the bad breaks he got as a kid well into adulthood and pushes the extreme. A lot of people pay the price. "The Atheist" is done after today, Sunday the 30th at 2 p.m. Tickets: $55-50.

527 Tremonts St., 617-266-0800 www.huntingtheatre.org