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.

There is a huge variety of music, moving from opera and Aussie rock to the likes of Björk and Boney M. The musical highlight would have to be their cover of Irving Berlin’s 1954 song "Sisters", which is perfectly packaged in cheek, warmth and mischief. The trio giving it enough personality to feel right at home within their warped little church.

The costumes are another standout, and at times, it's the lack of costume that can get the biggest reaction. The performers draw on a loose religious aesthetic of robes, habits and ceremonial dress, but with a very, very gay makeover. Religious iconography is used particularly well during Baptism, where familiar imagery is transformed into something theatrical and knowingly irreverent.

Consensual audience interaction is a big element of the experience, with the performers regularly breaking down the wall between congregation and stage. You know you are onto a good thing when audience members are practically begging to join them, and then having just as much fun once they are up there with them. Rather than feeling like a gimmick, this involvement becomes an extension of the central idea: everyone is welcome at this church.

And that is what makes Mass Hysteria work. It takes the rituals and imagery of faith and turns them into a playground for cabaret. There is no solemn sermon here, just three deities, Radda, Hickey and Rosebud, inviting us to worship at the altar of sparkle, music, flesh and a healthy dose of blasphemy.

Read our interview with Jens Radda here.

SHOW DETAILS

Venue: Trades Hall, Cnr Lygon & Victoria Sts, Carlton
Season: until 4 October | Wed - Sat 8pm, Sun 7pm
Duration: 60 minutes
Tickets: $38 Full | $34 Conc | $28.50 Hump Day Wednesday
Bookings: Melbourne Fringe Festival

Image credit: Georgia Moloney