Midnight Mass
at Trades Hall, December
15 to 23, 2000
Reviewer: Kate
Herbert
If you're a lapsed
Catholic, Midnight Mass is the Christmas comedy show for you. If you're not and
you can tolerate a little obscenity, go along anyway. It's a sacrilegious hoot.
This two hours show is an hour longer than the Christmas Eve
Midnight Mass that it parodies and about ten times as funny, depending on the
parish priest you have and how much altar wine you can get your hands on.
Picture the Virgin Mary as a foul-mouthed feminist stand-up
comic (Andrea Powell) or as a tacky interpretive dancer in a flimsy leotard.
(Felicity Menadue)
Imagine the Three Wise Men as Three Wise Queens of the
Priscilla kind. (Scott Brennan, Paul McCarthy, Damien Callinan) The choir is a
Christian boy band called "Boys' Town".
The parish priest is a brash and opinionated conservative
called Father Matey (Lawrence Mooney) and his curate is a newly arrived
stereotypical Irishman called Father Cliche. (Damien Callinan)
Even the church has succumbed to commercialism in this
instance. The Mass is sponsored by Fosters beer and Flag Motels. The priests
even wear Victoria Bitter labels on their cassocks.
The Mass follows the sequence of a real service but, within
its structure, we experience a mad collection of disparate sketches. There is a
clever TV game show called "Who's Sorry Now" based around local
sinners confessing their mortal and venial sins on public television.
Parishioners are auditioned for the Nativity Play. A
favourite is Gove, the sad-sack whose wife left him. His audition piece is an
excerpt from his psychodrama therapy.
The rebel faction CARDY (Christians Against Repressing Deep
Yearnings) comprising the dorkiest of the congregation, take the Baby Jesus
hostage before the nativity play until their demands are met.
The performances are strong and the whole is held together
by the two priests, Callinan and Mooney. A cavalcade of characters are played
by the other cast members.
The show could benefit from a hefty edit. There are some
scenes that just slow it down unnecessarily but it is hilarious Chrissie fare.
They even have Holy Cards of themselves depicted as saints to swap with your
mates.
By Kate Herbert
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