Review: Shesus & The Sisters, Tobacco Factory Theatres

Not all theatre performances start with a nun wearing dark shades, hitting the play button on her laptop as it rests on an ironing board, with fermented eggnog sourced from a local Aldi being shoved down your throat. But when they do, you know it can only be Shesus’s birthday.

The Gift of Presents is Shesus and the Sisters’ Christmas show. If you weren’t aware, Shesus is your multi-gender Missiah reincarnation and the Sisters are genuine (un)holy twins. Together, they’re a performance drag act that marries clowning, pop songs and the most resonant questions that plague our existence. Phew.

We were ordered to align our chakras and unclench our most private orifices as Shesus, Sister Mary Berry and Sister Pauline Hollywood promised to take us on a healing journey by way of party games, lip-syncing cabaret, and innuendo involving chocolate Swiss rolls.

The show is a thoroughly, and intimately, interactive show: The Gift of Presents isn’t for the faint of heart or even those who are looking for sentimental Christmas fun. Instead, you’ll be made to get close and personal with your fellow audience members all in the name of Shesus.

The sacred drag king herself, Loose (Lucy) Baker, conducts her birthday proceedings with laconic precision and the kind of natural aptitude for physical comedy that’s usually reserved for silent films. Baker is a professional fool, and her antics are artful.

Real-life sisters and, yes, genuine twins Danielle and Lauren Meehan provide the irreverence. Danielle’s Sister Pauline exudes a (disconcertingly) sexual charisma that drives the whole show, and keeps the audience on their toes.

Lauren Meehan’s Sister Mary Berry is quietly absurd: I laughed the hardest when it was her time to open up to our own spirituality through her fortunate ability to to command a heavenly portal via the medium of whale song.

Formerly wreaking havoc at the Hackney Showroom and Wilderness Festival, and even showing National Theatre audiences that performance art can be simply a matter of co-ordinated dance moves and a remarkably realistic false beard, the trio have really honed their niche.

But it’s not all stuffing your face with chocolate log (alas, on Press night we got Swiss roll) while singing carols heavily laden with oral sex innuendos to the tune of Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer.

Like a therapy session with a heavily caffeinated David Lynch, towards the end of the show there’s an abrupt interruption to the birthday proceedings. The Missiah and her Sisters issue a clarion call to recognising the way in which their own mental health problems have driven their creative process. It’s her birthday, after all, and she’ll cry if she wants to.

This note is undercut by a move into yet another cabaret pop song melody. If you thought the trio were mere clowns, you’re wrong – Shesus and the Sisters can also pull off a meaningful message with a well-timed eyebrow raise.

Throughout, the Missiah punctures proceedings by menacingly asking her audience to close their eyes and to start pondering the existential meaning of it all.

How did we get here? And what will save us from the modern world? These are the questions Shesus puts to us. If you’re wondering what the true spirit of Christmas really is, The Gift of Presents has the answer: simulated sex with confectionery, the unqualified joy of women being funny and, yes, Mariah Carey.

The Gift of Presents continues at Tobacco Factory Theatres until Sunday, December 30. For more information and to buy tickets, visit www.tobaccofactorytheatres.com/shows/the-gift-of-presents

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