Seven Sins: Shoreditch Church

Ok, so: a woman in a leotard, brandishes a whip and strides around the altar in stilettos. Her whipees, four girls in gold hotpants (are they in or something? that's the second post that's featured them) and lion masks, dance jerkily as Florence and the Machine blares from the speakers. A bearded lady in red tailcoat with much boobery spilling out of a black corset looks on from the front pew. A man in bowler hat with white face and painted black rings around his eyes looks on morosely from the back pew. This is odd. Exceedingly odd. 

This take on the seven deadly sins in Shoreditch Church doesn't exactly add anything new or thought provoking, but it has plenty of fairy lights, a huge amount of bizarrity and only a small pinch of discomfort. Actually I was expecting more of that. Especially as it began with said bowler-hatted ghoul stealing my handbag. I sat in my pew and felt many pairs of eyes looking at me. Then I saw him holding my bag aloft, yawning open, contents (oh good jesus, what's in there???) threatening to fall onto the cold stone floor. I had to chase him out of the church to get it back. When got back to my seat, a smug middle-aged woman sitting beside me on her own turned to me and said smugly, "well it is participatory you know," as if I was supposed to just laugh knowingly and let him walk off with my bag for the sake of art.

So basically we were led around the church to watch each sin being performed in ever more imaginative ways. A world of sex, drugs and... well, dance music mostly. Four of them were in sideshow tents and the rest played out on the main stage. My catholic guilt (the eight sin?) was horrified at a woman in fishnets writhing around four men playing cards on a table where the altar should be. But my enlightened modern woman self felt the religious setting was perfect. Actually I think they could have made it more excrutiating than it was. One person was subjected to being lipsticked and some were dragged up to dance with afrobots (in the picture above), but nothing too far from the comfort zone. And I'd imagine we were all warmed up to it by the very fact that we were there in the first place. I think it's finished now, but if it comes back again, definitely worth a look.