Review: Pawn Again Christian at QUT’s Theatre Republic

What’s the difference between what Kyle Sandilands said about the Virgin Mary and Annie Lee’s masturbating priest? The Brisbane audience at Pawn Again Christian didn’t care, writes Michelle Collins.

RADIO jock Kyle Sandilands received death threats over comments he made about the Mother of Jesus, and yet last night when performer Annie Lee shared what she thought a girls’ night out on the town would look like for the Virgin Mary and the Whore of Babylon there wasn’t a sound from the Brisbane Festival audience.

Brisbane Festival review: Husky play Tivoli in the Round

Brisbane Festival Review: River of Light and Evening Lights

Brisbane Festival review: Holy Holy

Brisbane Festival review: Fangirls at Billie Brown Theatre, West End

Nor did they gasp when she simulated a Catholic priest masturbating in the confessional.

It’s all in the context.

Annie Lee in her one-woman show, Pawn Again Christian.

Pawn Again Christian (pawn replaced porn to get around the Facebook censors), is Lee’s story about living in northern Tasmania and what it was like growing up as a Jehovah’s Witness — the embarrassment of doorknocking the homes of your school friends and trying to figure out the birds and the bees from a sex education book where the good bits were glued together.

But its also about how religion and our ideas of the meaning of life have let us down.

Reincarnation, astrology, fundamentalism, Wiccans — all get a touch-up — albeit with a touch of humour and a couple of songs (including one singalong).

While Sandilands was coming from a place of ignorance Lee — one third of The Kransky Sisters — has personal experience and meticulous research to back up her views. And she does it in the safe space of Brisbane Festival and QUT’s pop up performance space, Theatre Republic.

Rather than confront, Lee challenges us to question our beliefs.

After all, as she says “the truth will set you free.”

Rating: 4/5

Pawn Again Christian, until Saturday, Theatre Republic, La Boite Studio, The Works, QUT Creative Industries, Kelvin Grove, $35