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Augustine Early, the man at the center of Ronan Noone's monodrama The Atheist, may confess to adhering to no God, but he does practice religion: the worship of himself and his free will. "Atheist," which premiered in New York two seasons back, returns to the theater scene in a new production at the Barrow Street Theatre starring Campbell Scott. Provocative, and often fascinating in Scott's capable hands, this indictment of unscrupulous journalists nevertheless strains theatergoers' credulity.

This one-man show unfolds as a kind of confession that Early delivers to a video camera. After Augustine has hit his stride, however, the audience becomes his camera and theatergoers learn how at age 12 , after having given up on the concept of God, he burnt down his mother's trailer in an effort (ultimately successful) to secure better permanent housing. The lessons learned from this – that it is the appearance of truth and not truth itself that is ultimately believed in this world – stick, and when he decides on a career as a journalist, he relies on this sad and uncomfortable knowledge.

The majority of "Atheist" centers on Augustine's relationship with Jenny, an aspiring actress in Kansas City where he works as a freelance writer for one of two local papers. When he discovers that the bathroom in the carriage house that she rents has been rigged with video cameras, he quickly has all he needs to move from being a freelance writer to full-time employee of the paper. Like a chess champion studying his next move in a high stakes match, Augustine carefully maneuvers first the voyeur, and later this man's wife and Jenny with precision to ensure that each detail in an increasingly lurid tale achieves maximum newsworthiness.

Augustine's planning pays off as he finds that he achieves success not only in his home state, but nationally, as his actions begin a debate about journalistic ethics in a society that increasingly demands news coverage which corresponds to the voyeurism inherent in installing unseen cameras in a person's bathroom.

Scott's imbues the callous, devil-may-care Augustine with a certain charm and vulnerability that makes the man's actions and their repercussions almost palatable. Unfortunately, credibility doesn't attend the play as readily. Noone's writing is a mixture of coarseness, bitter wit and saddened nihilism that might seem fitting for a hard-nosed reporter or detective of decades long gone by, but somehow it seems unconvincing by contemporary standards. Director Justin Waldman's staging, which is punctuated by a jagged jazz soundscape from Alex Neumann, aims for a certain artiness (particularly given scenic designer Cristina Todesco's abstract set), but the effect only distances audiences further from a play that certainly raises important questions about journalists' ethics and their responsibilities to society, but never fully convinces.

---- Andy Propst

The Atheist plays in rotating rep with In Conflict at the Barrow Street Theatre (27 Barrow Street). Performances are Tuesday through Thursday at 8pm; Friday at 9pm, Saturday at 4 & 9pm; and Sunday at 4pm every other week. Tickets are $45.00 and can be purchased by calling 212-352-3101. Online ticketing and further information is available at www.cultureproject.org.