…You know when you read a book or watch a television show, and it is good and you do enjoy it immensely, but you also wonder how on earth it came to fruition? How does one come up with a plot as outlandish or seemingly paradoxical as what you just witnessed?
I have the same question about an hour-long Catholic disco drag act; a sentence I never thought I’d say and would very much like to see the Pope’s reaction to.
Father JC’s Holy Show stars Laura Wyatt O’Keeffe as our glamorous and over-ambitious priest, with Michelle Pittoni playing the DJ dragged in to perform the world’s best mass, and who is eventually won over to their pleasant surprise. As it happens, the former is of Irish Catholic origin and the latter of Italian Catholic, so I’m oddly well suited to understand a lot of the context embedded in this show! But even if you haven’t the first clue, this is a well-paced and humorous production with an underlying theme of kindness at its heart.
Which is evident from the moment O’Keefe steps onto the stage in a garish tracksuit complete with gold medallions and sharpie drawn facial hair. Obviously.
Jokes aside, under director Grace Duggan’s guidance this show revolves around the concept of community, laced with LGBTQ+ pride and nostalgia for raves. What made this performance interesting to me in that regard was the back and forth between a fun meta narrative that involved O’Keefe reaching out to the audience, and an internal storyline with subtle depth to it involving a lonely Father JC reaching out to the DJ for small, delicate moments of human connection. It was a well-struck balance, although perhaps O’Keefe and Pittoni played it too well, since I couldn’t help but wish they explored the underlying story between the two characters more. Nevertheless, I understand that wasn’t the overall aim and focus of the production, given that approximately a third of the performance time was devoted to the ‘mass’ for the audience.
And what a mass! The best thing since sliced bread, and Father JC would know since he wears a coat made of the stuff (Emily Harwood certainly has a unique imagination when it comes to design). It was an auditory experience, which is where this show excels. The music, the sound effects, a Siri-esque globe in the corner awaiting the priest’s next tune request, all of it was non-stop but in a manner that didn’t overwhelm you, which is a hard thing to achieve, especially if you’re trying to capture the magnitude of a bustling night club.
Most of all, this was fun. The characters opened up, the audience were laughing, and it would be easy to preach about community and acceptance for over an hour, but that would be the easy route. After the show, I heard a snippet from O’Keefe and Pittoni that caught my attention; they said they wanted to create a character they wished they could look up to when they were growing up. Maybe some people in the world would find the combination of a mass and a drag act unacceptable, but those would be the same people who would wilfully miss the blindingly obvious point of it all.
Hey, if nothing else, they should come along to enjoy what is certainly a feast for the ears.