Holy Matrimony is a large cast comedy, telling the story of a church-based Speed Dating event, and the chaos that happens in one congregation as the evening continues. Formatted a little like a speed dating event, we are shown a number of short vignettes of various dates, but an overarching plot is cleverly threaded throughout.
We are in the hall of a Catholic Church. The precise location is never specified, but that doesn’t really matter.
The church has arranged for a speed dating event, but they’ve ended up with an imbalance between the genders – there are more women than men.
After some awkwardness, it’s agreed that the women can talk to each other – as friends! Just friends! Absolutely, definitely nothing more – there is no-one queer here. Definitely not!
Anyone familiar with intra-church politics will recognise the characters, and their very accurate behavioural traits.
It quickly becomes clear that there are some very unlikeable characters, and some who surprise us. Ada is our outsider, here to deliberately provoke a group of people who she fundamentally disagrees with.
Ada’s first date is with Mark, an overly pious RE teacher. He’s gone full ‘these are my requirements for a wife’, and it is obvious that neither compromise, nor actually liking his future wife have occurred to him as things that should happen.
John has a ukelele. He also, very obviously, has a massive crush on the priest, Father Luke. As a reminder, this is a Catholic Church.
Also crushing on Father Luke is Trish, who has a fascinator that is bordering on being its own character. Trish also seems to hate absolutely everyone. She’s the perfect example of a self-proclaimed ‘Christian’ who displays absolutely none of the character traits that Jesus encouraged, such as kindness, and treating others as you’d like to be treated.
Father Luke, who is trying to keep a lid on the mounting chaos, is an affable chap, who just seems to want to do his job, but is also under a lot of pressure to be ‘the face of the church’.
In the rounds of dates that seem more likely to devolve to full on fisticuffs than love, the only date that really seems to go well is that between Chloe and Erin. It also becomes very clear, very quickly that both of them like women.
Also joining the throng is Marie, a woman who, I would wager, has made approximately 75,000 cups of tea for the church. You expect her to be conservative, and it’s a lovely moment when she turns out to not only be surprisingly accepting, but also very aware of what is going on under the congregations’ noses.
This production is very fast paced, and as we build to the conclusion of the narrative, everything becomes even more frenetic. There’s cakes flying across the church hall, dates that do, finally, descend into outright bitterness and recrimination, and an over-wrought, but absolutely genuine declaration of love.
Underneath all of the dates, has been a slowly developing conversation about faith, and how it manifests, and how having doubt can separate you not only from the physical building of the church, but also the wider church community, and even your family. Of how, even if a situation is toxic, or making you actively unhappy, sometimes breaking free is far from simple.
What’s remarkable here is the level of achievement. This is a large cast, and every character has depth and a differing role to fulfil. The script is well-paced and very funny. On an obviously restricted budget, careful decisions have been made that allow the characters who need specific costume items to have them. I suspect that a number of relatives, and personal wardrobes, have contributed much of the rest.
This is, Brig was told, the first time in several decades that the LSE Drama Society has been able to bring a show to the Edinburgh Fringe. On the basis of this production, they should be assisted to attend more frequently. This is a great show, with a deeper message hiding underneath the comedy. Should this production go to other fringes, it is highly recommended
Holy Matrimony has now concluded its run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. You can follow the LSE Drama Society here
Featured Image Credit: The Fringe Society
