THE ABSOLUT FRINGE 2012 has more than 100 shows playing out across Dublin until 23 September. Each day, TheJournal.ie will bring you our readers’ reviews of the pick of the crop and everything in between. You’ll get the chance to get in on the act yourself with our daily reader review tickets giveaway!

Today’s review: Mass

(The LSA)

MacKenzie Hayes’s review: Duncan Molloy’s “Mass” is not your typical Sunday morning mass. The performance takes the shape of a mass, with candles, singing, confession, communion, and even a little doctrine. Yet Molloy focuses on community rather than religion. The service begins with “We are all here waiting for something to happen.” This establishes that a foundation of unity that the show builds on.

After an opening song, stories are read that are very intimate. The feeling was that we were eavesdropping on some one’s time of confession. Religion was an underlying theme in each story but what made them so compelling was the vulnerability of the characters.

The next part of the service was where the magic began to fade. Molloy began to give his own testimony, but somehow it shifted from personal experience to religion to physics. The jump from intimate confessions to physics and theories was where the sense of community was lost.

If Molloy’s purpose was to bring together a group of strangers and form a community, he succeeded. A packed audience laughed, cried, and sang together. Overall, the show is definitely thought-provoking and deserves further meditation and discussion after leaving.

In three words? Challenging, communal, creative

Read more Fringe Fest reviews in a nutshell>

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