A performance that strikes with the force of a confession and the ferocity of a reckoning.
Kelly McCaughan returns triumphant to the Fringe Festival Stage with her show Catholic Guilt. Irreverent and bold, McCaughan dominates the stage intent to make sense of her Catholic upbringing in the only conceivable way possible—by meeting absurdism blow for blow. Together with McCaughan, the audience relives and deconstructs her eventful religious past, succinctly encompassing the whole deconstruction of her years long faith in just one mock church service complete with an offertory, and congregational singing.
This sensory hell of a piece may be the boldest bit of theatre to grace the Fringe stage, bearing witness to likely the most blasphemous dance sequence upon a sacrificial altar of “The Body and Blood of Christ.” With wild oscillations between poignant questions and painful audience participation, this piece left everyone thoroughly drenched in the feeling of Catholic Guilt that inspired such a work. Truly an immersive experience, McCaughan does not shy away from abusing her audience in a myriad of imaginative ways ranging from liberally doled out holy water to gelatinous goo created from vicious mastication on whole bread rolls mixed with red wine and pulverized underfoot.
Culturally relevant and downright refreshing in the most off putting of ways, this show is abrasive, gritty and somehow also liberating and vindicating for those who shared her experiences. Her performance is a raw confrontation against institutional control and a fierce rebellion against the suppression of sexuality and identity. There is something undeniably exhilarating in her unorthodox approach—a blend of chaos and unhinged defiance that ultimately finds freedom in expression after years of repression.
In the end, Catholic Guilt is unconventionally enjoyable and conventionally challenging, a theatrical experience that pushes boundaries and provokes thought, while McCaughan revels in the catharsis of her own rebellion.
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/kelly-mccaughan-catholic-guilt