Sydney Comedians Are Putting On A Very Weird Christmas Pantomime To Raise Money For Asylum Seekers
"It’s like a cross between Life of Brian and The Book of Mormon, only not as good as either."
Christmas can be a difficult time. Extended families come out of the woodwork, present-giving blows a hole in your wallet, and Channel Ten’s inevitably going to screen Love Actually again.
But if you’re looking for some entertainment over the holidays that both embraces and lovably takes the piss out of the Christmas spirit, you could do a lot worse than watching a bunch of huge nerds pick apart the time-honoured nativity play. A group of Sydney comedians, including Triple J’s Veronica Milsom, The Feed‘s Nicholas McDougall and The Checkout‘s Penny Haigh bringing back a long-lost art form: the traditional Christmas pantomime.
Similarities to Martin Freeman’s Nativity are decidedly non-coincidental.
Christmas pantomimes are historically an English pursuit, with schools and local acting troupes putting on gloriously daggy musical renditions of the nativity story, but the Sydney version is set to bring on a slightly revamped version. “The English pantomime is the perfect medium to subvert Christmas tradition by doing an outrageous sexy version of the nativity story,” Milsom says. “Closet pantomime lovers exist among us. Over the past year, I discovered three of my very talented friends are big fans.
“It’s like a cross between Life of Brian and The Book of Mormon – though definitely not as good as either. The script is totally original, minus the major plot points and characters we stole from the Bible, and the music has been entirely purposely crafted for the show — the songs are as cheesy and catchy as you’d imagine.”
Best of all, all proceeds raised from ticket sales are being donated to the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, an advocacy group that helps refugees settle in the community and provides asylum seekers with legal, medical and employment help.
“This year more than ever we’ve been made aware asylum seekers are some of the most desperate human beings on the planet. As a cast and crew we wanted to do something to help out and raise money to support them,” Milsom says. “We feel Christmas is the perfect time to put on a fundraiser – for us, the most important values of the festive season are generosity, positivity and community – irrespective of religion.
“Also forgiveness – the audience should be forgiving of any jokes that don’t quite work. There may be a few.”
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Good Lord! It’s Christmas runs at Giant Dwarf from Wednesday, December 8 to Friday, December 10. Tickets and info here.