In Conversation with Maddi Formosa | Big Religion
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In this weeks Backstage Blog, we spoke to Maddi Formosa, writer and director of Big Religion, the exciting new interrogation of religious institutions coming to Explosives Factory in two weeks time!
School is hell and then you die. Alternatively, an Angel crash lands on earth and annunciates you with the second coming of Christ. Either option is fine. Traversing the planes of human and heavenly existence, Big Religion is a quick-witted, impenitent and spirited exploration of what it can be to endure beneath the weight of the Almighty…or the weight of whatever we are told the Almighty is.
Q: Welcome to Theatre Works! How have rehearsals been going? How is everything shaping up?
MADDI: Thank you for having me! Rehearsals have been going so much more amazing than my brain could have comprehended. I am so lucky that I have a fantastic cast, producer (Cass Cogin) and a group of creatives around me that makes it all so much easier! We’re at the point now in which we have almost fully blocked the play and now we’re adding in elements like sound (John Augustine Sharp) that are just taking the work to the next level.
Q: Tell us a bit about how your experience has led you to the creation of this show
MADDI: I would say that I grew up “culturally Catholic” rather than strictly religious. My parents were baptised, went to Catholic school and had their Holy Communion, so I was baptised, went to Catholic school and had my Holy Communion. Church on Easter and Christmas. I have memories of learning the Bible stories at school. Then I grew up and into the wider world. I became baffled about how I could learn a lesson like “love thy neighbour” as a child from a story like ‘The Good Samaritan’, but some people somehow got the complete opposite message. I became angry. At people I saw as hypocrites. At the institution at large. At the things that the men in power get away with, under the supposed banner of God. My anger and my story became very very big and overarching. Then I got confused and scared and it became much smaller. It became about me. About people I went to school with. About characters from other things. It became about just two girls and two Beings just trying to get by.
Q: This show purports to break the glass on the institutions of religion. Where do you think the show stands in regards to faith?
MADDI: I think the show stands to explore the belief that faith is something deeply personal, and that you shouldn’t have to rely on those in power to inform your relationship with God or the Universe at large. I really think that lots of the issues within organised religion, in particular Catholicism and Christianity, stem from the fact that it is run by humans, mostly men, and at our core we are deeply flawed beings. And those flaws have caused an unfathomable amount of harm throughout history. In the show’s case, I explore just two young girls’ experiences within an educational institution. I also was interested in exploring the figurative hierarchy of “Heaven”. Is it the same as ours? What roles and jobs exist ‘up there’? Who is on the bottom rung and what do they think? Is it faith if it’s forced upon you? Is it faith if you’re punished for not having any?
Q: What will surprise audiences about this work?
MADDI: Probably that the show has more dancing than they might expect. Of course with special thanks to our superb Choreographer (and Intimacy Coordinator!) Eliza Grundy.
Q: What has been the most memorable moment in Big Religion's journey so far?
MADDI: I think the first rehearsal will always be special. To finally have your cast and crew all in a room together, and to hear the script read for the first time by the people who are actually going to perform it…it’s really something. To think back on it at the point we are now really makes it stand out. It was only four or five weeks ago!
Big Religion plays August 26 - September 5 at Explosives Factory.
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