Adelaide Fringe Review: ScoMo’s Sunday Service
Words by Ngoc Lan Tran
Genre: Musical comedy
Presented by: George Glass
In a secluded curtained corner of Currie St’s Arthur ART BAR, I went to church. Not particularly keen on meeting God on a Friday night, I downed a glass of Riesling before service and brought an atheist friend for company.
Ushered into our seats, we were urged to praise the lord with giggles and a charming hymn that trips on the pronunciation of hallelujah and vents on endemic lunch theft at work. I ironically thanked God for not leaving my sense of humour at home, especially upon the realisation that this was no ordinary church. Despite the alcohol and the atheism, I wasn’t there to mess around. No, I came here for business, tasked with solving one of the biggest mysteries of Australian politics:
Did Scott Morrison soil himself at Engadine Macca’s in 1997?
Unordinary indeed, old mate Scott raised from the pews to lead the service and addressed his utmost crap-ful political rumour. His address narrates the many encounters with God’s representative i.e. a random angel, his dealings with bureaucratically kinky wife Jenny, the one and only staff member at Video Ezy who’s most likely to live on the dole — all set to a journey through the turd-ish self-fulfilling prophecy of poo under the shiny golden arches of the world’s most well-known capitalist establishment. And of course, would Scott’s address be truly complete without some sneaky behind-the-scene cameos from his ALP friends Penny, Kevin, and Julia?
In politics, where there is smoke, there is fire, and when it stinks, it’s probably shit. The show is original, achingly funny, and undeniably poignant. Its themes are all to be expected considering the comedy troupe’s previous Fringe hits Abbott the Musical and George Glass Proves the Existence of God. What was unexpected is a soon-enough realisation that, underneath all that humour, there exist glimmers of euphemistic foreshadowing to a truth of the darkest kind. George Glass does not shy away from a bit of honesty about ScoMo’s competence, nor do they cover up his questionable thinking and actions, thus delivering an experience as liberating as what Scottie did on a fateful night at Engadine Macca’s in 1997.
ScoMo’s Sunday Service is a heathen sanctuary that personifies the scared and resurrects the sacrilegious, embodies the satirical yet advances the postulation of politics. With immersive lighting and farcical numbers that would make you want to jump into worship, George Glass unpacks a political rumour by devoting at the altar of the absurd. By looking for creativity in rumour, sincerity in absurdity, and truth in comedy, George Glass easily becomes masters of the religious and political satire, staking the funk band’s claim as Adelaide Fringe’s unmissable favourite.
ScoMo’s Sunday Service runs till Friday, 18th of March.
Tickets are on sale at adelaidefringe.com.au
