PeterRS Posted August 21 Posted August 21 As I believe many people are aware, the annual Edinburgh Festival now underway is not only an occasion for the high arts. There is at virtually the same time a Fringe Festival which attracts thousands of performers presenting all manner of shows and events. Last year there were 51,446 performances of 3,745 events from 60 different countries. The satirical evening "Beyond The Fringe" presented in 1960 launched the careers of Dudley Moore, Peter Cook, Alan Bennett and Jonathan Miller when all were recent University graduates. It started the satire boom in the UK and was way ahead of its time. It then went on to long runs in both London and New York. Although it was in fact part of the official Festival programme, it was devised to attract attention to the existence of the Fringe, which has never looked back. Among those who started their careers with shows on the Fringe include Sir Billy Connelly, Rowan Atkinson, Sir Stephen Fry and Sir Derek Jacobi. I mention this because one show this year has gathered considerable attention and seems destined to go on to performances in more major theatrical centres. The Alpaqa Theatre Collective from Peru's new musical with a Latin twist "Jeezus!" portrays Jesus as the son of Maria and Jose. Jose is deeply religious and homophobic but when Jesus sees presentations of the mosty naked Christ on the cross in his local church, he is both confused and aroused. He has a sexual awakening. The musical only has two characters, one playing Jesus and the other all the other parts. It is set in the time of Peru's strongman leader Alberto Fujimori. As The Guardian's review today reports, in one of the songs Fujimori's followers sing "We will suck your massive dic . . . tatorship." Erotic overtones and religious imagery are explored in many of the songs. The reviewer writes, "Jeezus! lightly explores the grip of religious patriarchy and the potential salvation of embracing love with no limits, in a sweet and smutty hour of uplifting musical comedy." At the end, the two characters sing "If love is a mortal sin, let's burn in hell." Summing it up, a reviewer in WhatsOnStage writes, "The score fizzes with variety, shifting from Lloyd Webber-esque ballads to Peruvian folk melodies . . . the production crackles with electricity, the pace never flagging. It’s a set-up that promises unaltered blasphemous satire, but writer Sergio Antonio Maggiolo sidesteps the easy route: Jeezus! is not about renouncing faith, but about finding a way to reconcile it with queer love." https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/aug/20/jeezus-review-underbelly-cowgate-edinburgh https://www.whatsonstage.com/news/jeezus-at-underbelly-cowgate-edinburgh-fringe-review_1691217/ tm_nyc 1 Quote
