Mass Hysteria review | Melbourne Fringe Festival | Trades Hall

Forget Sunday service. Mass Hysteria wants to show you what happens when you replace church pews with a cabaret stage, hymns with saucy songs and religious devotion with drag. This Holy Trinity, consisting of Iva Rosebud, Meg Hickey and Jens Radda, is ready to lead us into salvation and enlightenment through cabaret, burlesque and live performance.

From the moment the audience settles in, it is clear this is not going to be your traditional service. The trio embrace the theatricality of worship, moving between song, dance, burlesque and comedy while playing with the rituals and language associated with the church. There is a knowing irreverence to it all, but the production is not simply about making fun of faith. Instead, it takes these traditions and gives them a very queer, very cabaret interpretation.

The show is divided into several chapters, including Communion, Temptation and Baptism. Each comes with a passage from the Book of Hysterium, offering the audience a subtle tease of what is about to come. That unpredictability is part of the appeal of Mass Hysteria. You never quite know what is coming next.