In conversation about Holy-O with Lauren Hance

(An personalized interview + review combination) 

“Artists are modern day prophets”

It was a heart-warming chat with writer-performer, mother + director, Lauren Hance - who by the way, does similar art-centred reviewing to me! Check out her website -https://www.whatthefringeproductions.com/. We talked all about her mom-celebrating creative collaborations, her tenacity for storytelling + how her artistry honours women’s bodies, spirits + sexuality.

“I wrote the show I needed … and the audience said, me too”

Lauren, who just arrived in Adelaide from Houston, Texas, brings her show Holy O which is well established, has won multiple awards touring all over the USA + Canada. Holy O arose from Lauren’s journey of shedding the harmful conditioning of purity culture, which she grew up in, and it’s impact on her body + sexuality. The show interweaves her own experience into a character, called Vera, combined with the cherished stories of a diverse pool of women who felt the same. In the midst of her creative process + travel, Lauren is balancing being a mom to her two kids + a wife to her husband back home - she is that creative + empowered parent, showing her children what is possible in life when you follow your dreams. Her two kids, 13 + 15, are aspiring artists themselves, one of them interested in writing + the other interested in theatre. Lauren champions her husband for being such a great dad who supports her lifestyle + holds the fort while she’s away touring, sometimes for nearly a month at a time.

“I’m a mom, and that was something that was really important in the creation and development process, and in who I bring onto the team.”

Mom’s like to work with other Moms. This makes so much sense to me - as Lauren so rightfully put it ‘they may not always be available, but you can trust that Mom’s get shit done’. She shares that she has created a web of artist-mothers who bring their immense creative talent, experience + gifts on a schedule that make sense with parental responsibilities. The Houston community have also opened their arms to Lauren and her creative team who regularly rehearse in churches, classrooms + even city council spaces!

“I’m a verbal processor, I like to talk about it, I like to do research, I like to get it structurally sound.”

Building community is central to Lauren’s process in the making + the lasting impact of her show. A classic extrovert, she needs to reach out to others, talk + listen. She also loves structure - she mentioned Holy O was written out before taking it into the rehearsal space. She worked alongside director, Amelia Peterson to assemble the structure + dramaturgy of the show + to bring it to life. She says that having a director is absolutely vital in theatre-making, and that you can always tell if an artist made a show on their own, there’s something missing. Throughout her creative process, Lauren has listened out carefully for the needs of her audience + local community + created Holy O, knowing that truth-telling was vital to empower women to retrieve body-freedom. It feels like a crucial moment to do this work in a time where so many female voices + bodies are so openly under attack in the US.

“Art is one of the pillars of society… I’m an artist, okay? I’m not a politician. That’s just not my thing. But I know how to tell a story”

What shone over our zoom call, was Lauren’s huge passion + generous soul. She believes that artists make best work when they establish a giving mindset - well Lauren has this in bucket-loads. She believes it’s our responsibility as artists to make theatre that reflects back to us what’s happening now, like a mirror. And art that shows us what is to come, either good or bad, like a crystal ball. We were cackling away at our shared compulsion to tell prophet-grade truth in performance, no matter what - it’s impossible not to, she says. Lauren strongly feels that art is absolutely fundamental to humanity - more now than ever. I couldn’t agree more.

   
My Review

When the innate body screams louder than religious responsibility, we know Vera is on course for a breakthrough. But what does that look like? Holy-O beckons us to question where a woman’s obedience ends + embodiment begins. In who’s hands should we place our body, our spirit + our life decisions? God, men, institutions, friends, family, the wisdom of our own bodies? Hmm…

Having been given 4 golden pipe cleaners + some instructions on how to make what we realised was a saint-like head-piece we fumbled over our crafting, hoping to be wearing child-like tiaras in time for lights up. Some soft giggles amongst strangers in the crowd, we had quickly become a part of the same team. Clothes are strewn across the stage + seats. My first thoughts were - I know this, I like mess!! Mwahahaha. My thoughts were interrupted by the inner voice of a patronising psychologist that said: ‘messy room = messy mind’, which I guess is right - but can’t both things be true? We co-experience a painful duality throughout this show with Vera, played by Lauren. We realise we are looking in on Vera’s messy bedroom in a time of great confusion + reckoning and we feel it. A yearning for autonomy crashes against religious commitments - we watched the pendulum aggressively swinging Vera between these two realities with no middle path insight.

Vera immediately puts us on a pedestal as saints; every few minutes, we are asked to choose one of her clothing items out of 2 or 3 options, which would become a portal for another story, meaning that each show is different! I am curious to go again to hear more stories. Lauren approached audience interactions with warmth + confidence. However, we felt Vera’s compulsive turning to us for direction which, was both a very smart way of involving us in the show and at the same time, it mirrored a lack of trust Vera had in her own sense of what was right. Lauren is an effortless storyteller with a heart bigger than her body. It felt like the people she was telling stories about truly arrived in the room with us - her embodiment + voice work captured their essence with love + humour.

The ingenious + alive structure of the show painted a diverse tapestry of religious, social + sexual experiences - from punishing ‘spiritual direction’ with nuns, to pick-me ups from a body-positive colleague, to upkeeping her grandmother’s legacy of blessings + sweeties, to Jesus watching in on a lesbian kiss. We were able to decipher between the fluid + the rigid, the nourishing + the oppressive. Beneath the stories was a bubbling undertow of intensifying rage, grief + desire that became harder for Vera to give up. The huge release at the end allowed us to meet her on equal footing, which was profound + moved many of us to tears. I love how the show started and ended in a cyclical way - we were able to see clearly Vera’s embodied transformation from the start to the end.

As a non-religious, but pretty spiritual human being, I appreciated the sanctity Lauren created around prayer - whilst often the motivation of Vera’s prayers (the itchy trousers) felt like an excuse to neglect herself, the essence of her prayers felt like a universal medicine and care that our modern world desperately needs. I was particularly touched by the moments where audience members were asked to co-create prayers with her + when she invited us all to hold hands. Radically, in these moments, the audience retrieved a raw sacredness from institutional grip.

Holy-O breaks down the ‘shoulds’ of life into the ‘coulds’ - Lauren’s performance metabolises fear + shame into embodied choice + integrated belief - a deeply moving + healing show for all people to witness. You can tell she made this show because she truly wants justice for all beings and my goodness, she delivers.