Risking excommunication, and taking audience participation into hitherto unexplored territory, Amy Mason has created a totally non-churchy ceremony for our times, modelled closely in structure on the Catholic Mass. A recent survey suggests that less than 40% of us are religious, a statistic supported at the start of the evening by the few hands raised in response to the question, ‘Do you believe in God?’ Has this absence of faith created a vacuum and, if so, what might be filling it?
In this solo show Amy points out that while we may not be religious, it seems we need something beyond ourselves. Surely we can find something better to believe in than the astrology forecasts in our newspapers, or homeopathy, or even the ‘cosmic ordering’ promoted by the sainted Noel Edmonds, but what? A decidedly lapsed Catholic, Amy Mason found herself praying for the first time in years when the bus she was travelling on ran over two people. She found the accident deeply distressing, not least because so many onlookers responded with disrespect for the victims, taking photographs of them with their mobiles and complaining loudly at the delayed journey. ‘My mother and grandmother would have known what to do – they would have prayed’, she tells us. Few of us now respond to such situations with prayers, and Amy quickly abandoned hers, but neither, hopefully, would we respond with callous indifference. So how should we behave when faced with all of life’s vicissitudes? What should 21st century spirituality look like? Mass offers no profound answers, but with humour, music and often movingly recounted personal anecdote, Amy Mason reminds us of the importance of simple virtues, such as tolerance and kindness (though she does appear to have it in for Tesco). Each performance of Mass will have its own individual quality, for some of the content is supplied by the audience/congregation.
Be prepared to submit your own prayer! The tone throughout is collaborative and consensual, and the audience on the opening night was most definitely on-message, responding warmly to Mason’s gentle digs at boring sermons, X-Factor, Katie Hopkins etc. Perhaps at times it is a little too cosy, and I would have liked a sharper edge to the social observation. However, Mass is highly original in format, and there are some beautifully written passages that remind us that Amy Mason is an award-winning novelist, who has created an evening of considerable warmth and charm. ★★★☆☆ Mike Whitton 31.03/15
