We sat down for an exclusive interview with Sergio Maggiolo, creator of and performer in JEEZUS!
This show runs from 21st April to 9th May at New Diorama Theatre – Tickets here
Your work sits at the intersection of faith, queerness and political history. What felt most urgent to reclaim or reframe through Jesus’ story right now?
I grew up with religion as a language of love. It was in the rituals, the songs, and the way we lived together. The urgency now is about taking that language back from the structures that weaponized it. The same systems that prop up patriarchy and authoritarianism love to hide behind faith, but with JEEZUS! we are redirecting that reverence. We’re pointing it toward joy, queer love, and the messy, ecstatic parts of being human. If religion is supposedly about love, then it has to stand against violence instead of justifying it. That feels like a story worth shouting about.
JEEZUS! resists mocking religion while still interrogating it. How did you navigate that tonal tightrope without losing either bite or sincerity?
I’m inside it, so I don’t have to look at it from a distance. I come from a family where religion is a genuine expression of love, so those symbols are part of me. That closeness is actually what gives me permission to laugh because the humour comes from a place of truth. There’s a massive difference between faith and the institution of the Church. I don’t mock belief, but I absolutely interrogate power. Contradiction is already baked into the dogma, so we just follow it to its most absurd conclusions. My compass is love for people and their spirituality, mixed with a love for rebellion and questioning what we’ve been told to bow down to.
The show blends Latin pop, cumbia and club beats with something almost devotional. How does music become a kind of theology within the piece?
The show didn’t even start as a musical. It became one through playing around in workshops until we realized music was the actual heartbeat. Music is already at the centre of religious ritual. It gathers people, lifts them up, and dissolves the individual into a collective. That is theology to me. In JEEZUS! the dancefloor and the altar are the same thing. Latin pop and cumbia just let us do that with a bit more sweat and bass. It also helps that the rest of the world is finally catching up to how powerful Latino music is.
Set against the backdrop of 1990s Peru, how consciously are you inviting audiences to draw parallels between personal awakening and political control?
Very consciously. Controlling bodies through shame and prohibition is just another form of colonization. If you take away someone’s relationship to their own desire, you take away their autonomy. Authoritarian systems rely on people being afraid to look them in the eye, which is why we use laughter. JEEZUS! refuses to take authority at face value, even while we take the themes seriously. What happened in 90s Peru isn’t an isolated event. You see the same patterns of displacement, control and silencing happening everywhere today. The personal awakening in the show isn’t a side story; it is a literal act of resistance.
You perform multiple roles alongside Guido. How does that shapeshifting reflect the fluidity of identity the show is exploring?
To be honest, I mostly just pull faces and let Guido do the heavy lifting. But in a clown duo, you’re constantly shapeshifting through each other anyway. Half the time you don’t know who is leading and who is being exposed. That instability is exactly the point. The piece feels both deeply personal and wildly theatrical.
Where did you find permission to be this unapologetically bold with your own story?
I got it from the people who gave me love and freedom early on. My family, mentors, and collaborators never asked me to shrink myself. I also found it in queer artists who made space for the absurd and the excessive. In Latin American theatre that has a history of creating something massive and powerful out of very little, often out of pure sweat and commitment. I also take a lot from the migrant experience. Watching people cross borders and still insist on taking up space. I hope JEEZUS! is proof that immigrant stories don’t just exist here; but they actively shape the culture and identity of this country.