Midnight Mass
Celebrating the generous spirit of the season Damian & Lawrence invited others to join them to mount a Christmas show in 2000. Produced by Jigsaw Entertainment the group opened the doors of St. Finbars to a world of parody and blasphemy that brought the fundamentalists of f their kneelers and onto the streets outside trades hall to protest.
The struggling fictional parish decided to use the high attendance of Christmas mass to tr y to lure the ‘once a year’ Catholics back to the fold. Using corporate advertising; altar boy bands; a revamped nativity play and strategic product placement the priests do anything thing they can to get bums on seats.
Lawrence Mooney, Damian Callinan, Andrea Powell, Scott Brennan, Felicity Menadue & Paul McCarthy
2000 Victorian Trades Hall
“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.
Picture the Virgin Mary as a foul mouthed feminist stand up comic or as tacky interpretive dancer in a flimsy leotard. Imagine the 3 wise men as 3 wise queens of the Priscilla kind.
The mass follows the structure of a real mass but within its structure we experience a mad collection of disparate sketches. There’s a clever TV game show called ‘Who’s Sorry Now’ based on 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 is an excerpt from his psychodrama therapy.
The performances are strong and the whole is held together by the priests, Callinan and Mooney. Hilarious christmas fare.”
