Director Laura Killeen spoke to David Hennessy about London premier of the Edinburgh award winning show Jeezus!
The award- winning Edinburgh Festival Fringe hit Jeezus! will have its London premiere at the New Diorama Theatre from next week.
Jeezus! is an irreverent and high-octane comedy musical that combines Catholic guilt with Latin heat.
Set in 1990’s Peru, the story takes place against the backdrop of a brutal military coup.
Altar boy Jesús prepares diligently for his first communion but as the biggest day of his adolescent life approaches, the man on the cross makes him feel something unholy.
The production tackles themes of colonialism, sexuality and sin is written.
Jeezus! is directed by Laura Killeen.
Laura is a director and theatre maker from South Woodford in London.
Laura took time to chat to us about the musical.
How are you looking forward to bringing Jeezus! To London?
“It’s perfect for us.
“We’ve got such a lovely relationship with New Diorama.
“We won the Untapped award last year which they’re one of the partners in, so we feel really supported.
“It’s great to have an opportunity to fully stage and bring it properly to life.
“It’s going to be really great.”
You must have been pleased with that Untapped award..
“100%.
“As creatives and artists we don’t make the work for any kind of validation but it doesn’t mean that it isn’t nice to get it when it comes and to have these three.
“Underbelly, New Diorama Theatre and Concord Theatricals, to have those three organisations say, ‘We want to put our names on what you’re making. We believe in it’.
“Edinburgh is very, very noisy.
“There’s so many different shows all fighting for attention and us just being able to have the platform of the Untapped award gave us a little bit of a louder megaphone so people could know that we existed which was really, really special.”
How did the play first come about?
“It’s written by Sergio Maggiolo and it’s loosely based on his experience growing up as a young queer man in a conservative Catholic Peru under the power of President Fujimori’s military dictatorship.
“Sergio just said, ‘I’ve got this idea for a show and I’d really love you to work with me on it’.
“So the two of us got in a room and we gradually started creating the first version of Jeezus! which, in its first iteration, was a one man show.
“We did a work in progress at Camden People’s Theatre for three nights and it had an incredible response but something that came out of that experience was us understanding what we wanted.
“There was a little bit of live music and we knew that we wanted some more so we then brought on Sergio’s real life partner who is also a brilliant performer and musician Guido Garcia Lueches to come on board and to make some music and quickly we realised that actually we wanted him on stage, we wanted this to be a two person piece.
“Then it evolved into a musical which we did a work in progress of at the Pleasance. We did two nights there in London and after that it became, ‘Alright, this is what we’re going to really go hard with’.
“And from there, we really delved into the kind of spectacular, the fantasia and we really went for it being a musical and the play evolved beautifully through the music.
“There are pieces that were spoken word poetry in the first version that we ever did that are now these great big Latin pop bangers.
“It’s just wonderful to see the evolution of the art in that way.
“Our last kind of showstopper or one of our kind of showstopper songs is, ‘If love is a mortal sin, let’s burn in hell. If our love is seen as something sinful then let us sin in the eyes of those people’.
“I think we are looking at where we lay power: Is it that God is powerful or that love is powerful and that the love that God gives people is the powerful element?
“I think the exploration of love through the music in the play is really beautiful.
“It’s really important to me to use indigenous instruments to Peru and to show the coming of age of the protagonist in the show but we also are seeing, in some ways, a coming of age of Peru.
“I think that’s an expression of love as well.
“The show is showing love in so many different guises.”
Did you identify with the story when you first heard about it?
“I think so.
“Sergio grew up in Peru, I grew up in the UK but I have an Irish family and was brought up as Roman Catholic.
“I think there are similarities that we have realised in the myths and the stories that we were told as children.
“Religion was brought over by the British Romans to Ireland and it was brought to Peru by the Spanish and in both countries, it was used as a way to control thought.
“Religion was used as a colonial tool in both places and I think there are some real similarities between a Peruvian and an Irish religious upbringing.
“I think that we aligned on that quite quickly and we also aligned on having a real love and appreciation for faith.
“This piece is a celebration of religion in a lot of ways.
“It’s not here to mock it.
“It’s here to explore the contradictions and the ecstasies and the hypocrisies that exist within it and it’s a real celebration of how beautiful faith can be.
“We really see this in the character of the protagonist’s mother Maria and her true belief and her true faith and her true love not just for her religion but also for her son.
“Catholicism is such an extreme power in our lives and is so well known by so many of us but being able to look at it and not in a binary sense but say, ‘Okay, there are things here that we can be critical of but there’s also things here that we can celebrate’, I was really excited to be able to look at the complexities and the paradoxes within that but also I think a lot of the work that I am attracted to is.”
How have you found the reactions to the play? Have you found it landing as you would have hoped?
“Absolutely, it’s been really incredible the conversations that have sprung up from this show whether it’s with audience members that we’ve never met before or it’s members of our family seeing the show for the first time.
“Both of my parents went to convent schools.
“I remember the first time they saw it they were still sitting in the audience after the house lights had come up and everyone had left.
“I thought, ‘Oh dear…’
“I went over and they were just having such a full conversation, they felt that they couldn’t pick it up and leave the theatre with it, and about things that they’ve never thought about before: These stories that are passed down from generation to generation that become truth.
“The gospel in Catholicism is one thing, the truth is another and the gospel truth is a whole other thing entirely.
“We talk about faith, we talk about miracles. These things have so much power and it’s so interesting for people who have experienced Catholicism in that way to be able to see the show and then have the conversations with us afterwards.
“It’s really, really eye opening and so much joy.
“It’s like euphoria for a lot of people.
“The music is so lively and brilliant and joyful.
“Guido and Tom, our musical director, have done such a wonderful job on it.
“People are dancing in the street afterwards.
“We chose very carefully what we wanted the very last song people heard before they left our theatre space, we were in Edinburgh and we could hear people singing it and humming it walking down the street.
“It’s a really, really joyful piece.
“It’s true that it may not be for everybody but I think that we really try to be very clear in our messaging around the show because we would never want somebody to come and see the piece that would then feel uncomfortable.
“I think the title of the show and the press image it’s clear what you’re getting yourself in for when you’re coming to see the piece.
“We’re not interested in making anybody uncomfortable, we’re interested in celebrating.
“The show is extremely loving of Jesus Christ as a character.
“He’s the love interest.
“It’s a coming of age story mixed with a rom com in a lot of ways and Jesus is extremely loved in our show.
“It’s a celebration of faith and how faith can be a really beautiful thing when we’re able to strip away the unquestioned myths and power structures around it.”
A lot of people comment on the show’s authenticity which of course comes from it being Sergio’s story and performed by him with his partner..
“It’s a queer coming of age story and a queer love story and it’s being performed by a real life couple and I think it helps people to see themselves in the story that’s being told.
“We play with meta theatricality to then have that realisation that Jesús, this young man who had this coming of age, coming out realisation of it’s okay to be the person that he was born as and then to see everything stripped away and realise this is a real life queer Latinx couple and they have had their coming of age as well.
“I talk a lot about the joy but there’s quite a lot of tears as well.
“I think there’s a lot of joyful tears.
“We love a little one two punch in the theatre of make them laugh and then hit them right in the feels.
“I think we have that in Jeezus!
“It’s authentic but it isn’t super earnest in its delivery.
“We’re playing with it all the time.
“And also, it’s really silly.
“The show is extremely funny and silly.
“We have our key tenets of how we make the show and the direction that we wanted the show to go in and we have them written up on the wall and number seven on that list is just the word silly in capital letters.
“It’s a really, really silly show.”
Laura points out the show has evolved since Edinburgh.
“There’s a whole new world that I’ve got to create as part of the show, there’s a whole new place that we go to so there’s things changing and things that I’m really excited about getting to work with on this kind of fully realised London premiere of Jesus.”
Tell me about the Irish background in your family..
“All four of my grandparents are Irish.
“On my dad’s side, both from Mayo and on my mum’s life, my granny’s from Leitrim and my grandad’s from Offaly.
“My granny is 91 years old but she never says it.
“She always says, ‘I’m in my 92nd year, you know?’
“She’s in Westmeath now.
“I’ve got quite a lot of family in Westmeath so I’m over in Ireland as often as I can to see mates and granny really.”
Did you grow up going over to Ireland every summer holiday?
“I was very lucky that all of my grandparents were born in Ireland but moved to London and I had them in London for a chunk of my childhood but then one set of grandparents moved to Westmeath and I would go and visit them.
“Obviously you’re also over in Ireland for the family weddings and baptisms and things etc.
“Many, many, many cousins, of course and now it’s wonderful because I have my own relationship with Ireland with going to visit my granny as an adult.
“I’m an Irish citizen by foreign birth registry so I got my citizenship quite recently.
“I remember getting the certificate through of my foreign birth registry and It just felt really right.
“I’ve always felt such a connection to my Irish heritage and such a real pride in it as well.”
Does Ireland feel like home?
“Do you know what?
“It doesn’t just feel like home when I get back to Ireland, it feels like home when I speak to someone who’s Irish.
“It’s a part of my life that I’m incredibly proud of.
“My Irish history and my Irish citizenship and background is all part of the fabric of who I am and I’m so happy about it especially now that I’m an EU citizen as well, that’s the cherry on top.
“I’m quite a politically active person and I remember when Ireland repealed the eighth, decriminalised same sex marriage, these things happening by referenda just so, so deeply proud across the generations.”
Have you been inspired by Irish theatre?
“Certainly.
“I’ve always loved brilliant Irish theatre makers and Irish poets, Irish writers, definitely inspired by all of them.
“If I could do a show at the Abbey one day, that’s the dream.
“That’s the actual dream.”
A great Irish playwright is referenced in one of your previous plays, Godot is a Woman..
“Again, an interesting true life story turned theatrical.
“A company of clowns, two women and a non-binary performer, in real life applied for the rights to perform Waiting for Godot but the Beckett estate told them they couldn’t have the rights.
“When they dug deeper, they discovered that the reason was in the year before Beckett died, he had turned down a female theatre company from performing it.
“When they started investigating, they discovered that there were female productions all over the world from universities in America to Fiona Shaw doing it on the West End- All of these productions were shut down by the Beckett estate because Beckett had decided no once 30 years ago and they’ve kind of upheld that.
“Waiting for Godot is kind of the every man’s story. It’s about life. It’s about waiting. Why does it have to be an every man’s story? Why can’t it be an every person’s story? The play explores that and what we’re upholding about gender and why we are.
“The spine of the play about Beckett just becomes the facilitator for a larger conversation.
“Jeezus! is really quite political.
“There’s a big exploration of the oppressing forces to do with what was happening politically at the time in 90s Peru with a military dictatorship.
“We have the politics but we also have the joy and the euphoria and Godot is a Woman is a very political piece that has a lot of joy as well and a lot of exploration.”
Jeezus! is not the only play you have coming up..
“Yeah, I don’t know how I’ve managed this but I’ve got two shows opening in London on the same night, Jesus! and another show I directed Hold The Line are both opening on 21 April in London at different theatres.
“Hold The Line is a lovely play written by an actor who, during COVID lockdown, started working as an NHS 111 call handler and has written a play about what it’s like to be a call handler.
“There’s a piece for Edinburgh Festival that I’m working on.
“There’s a little bit going on.
“And I’m lucky enough to be the artistic director of a really beautiful pub theatre in London as well called the Rosary Branch Theatre and we are just coming to the end of one of our festivals, which has been running throughout March so it’s been a very fun, busy spring so far.”
Jeezus! is at New Diorama Theatre until 9 May. For more information, click here.
For more information about laura, click here.
