Advertisement

Winnipeg Fringe play sparks controversy with Virgin Mary character that isn’t a virgin

Theresa Thomson as the Virgin Mary.

An actress performing in a Winnipeg theatre festival, which is celebrated for pushing boundaries, is being chastised and insulted for pushing boundaries by suggesting the Virgin Mary wasn't a virgin at all.

And all of this is seemingly being done by one or more people who would describe themselves as moralistic folk that don't take kindly to the Bible being played with and have apparently never heard the phrase "any publicity is good publicity."

Winnipeg actress Theresa Thomson has been called "blasphemer" and worse for her performance in the Winnipeg Fringe Fest production Lies of a Promiscuous Woman, which picks up the idea that Jesus wasn't conceived through Immaculate Conception and runs with it.

According to the Winnipeg Free Press, Theresa has faced taunts, jeers and has seen the word "slut" penned across her face on billboards as well as on the side of her car.

"It's hard not to take it personally... because it's in my face," she told columnist Gordon Sinclair Jr.

A festival organizer was reportedly approached by two men who demanded they remove the play from the schedule and. When their demands were rejected, the attacks and incidents of vandalism escalated.

CBC Manitoba's review of the play suggests, "The production veers into blasphemy and heartache, but is never far from hilarity." It further notes that Thomson "provides a perfect foil to perceptions of the original virgin."

The production, written and directed by Audra Lesosky and produced by Monkey Centurion and The Company of Women, surely suspected the production would raise questions and opposition, though in Canada such things should not be synonymous with insults and attacks.

The show's webpage issues two warnings for audience. The show contains coarse language. And the show contains blasphemy.

This isn't a complicated calculation. The Winnipeg Fringe Festival isn't a place where experienced actors go to offer Shakespearean soliloquies. This is a theatre festival (an admittedly an enjoyable one) that accepts immature shows from novice talents.

Big names have launched big careers with the help of the Winnipeg Fringe, but for the most part the festival is filled with stage productions borne from gloriously tilted minds that will live short lives and be seen by few people.

And, yes, every year there there seems to be one show that people claim crosses too many boundaries. Protests erupt and we ask ourselves which is worse, the contents of the show or the fact that someone would willingly pay admission and still bother launching a vocal protest.

Recall last year, when another Fringe Fest performance scored national attention for pantomiming oral sex and, oh yea, having an actor give himself and actual mayonnaise enema on stage. (Organizers said at the time that, of all the complaints the performance received, none of them came from audience members.)

Compared to that, the concept of Lies of a Promiscuous Woman seems downright innocent.

Hell, the idea that the Virgin Mary wasn't an actual virgin wasn't considered for the first time by a Winnipeg writer looking to fill a downtown theatre stage.

Here is an Oxford University professor debunking the notion in The Guardian. And more folks telling the Washington Times the notion was probably added into the Bible later.

All of this is beside the point. It is Christian dogma, which means those who subscribe may have to accept it as fact, but the rest of the world is free to do otherwise. Whether that is in serious religious debate or on a stage at a Canadian film festival.

There's no need to go through the list of books, films and other submissions into the annals of pop culture that have similarly riled religious opposition.

Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, Kevin Smith's movie Dogma, Marilyn Manson's just about everything. In each case, they both survived and surely thrived amid the vocal outbreak of Christian opposition.

One would think that in this day and age, should a self-described moralist be offended by a blasphemous fringe festival performance, the last thing they would do is protest, demand the show be shut down, and write "slut" on everything they can get their Sharpie onto.

The attacks against the actress are evidence of being a terrible person. A failure to understand that a fringe fest play is likely to play in the realm of taboo is evidence of being a naive fool.

Christians should protest Christians who don't get this by now.

Want to know what news is brewing in Canada?
Follow @MRCoutts on Twitter.