Cover Image: A boldly irreverent promotional image for Virgin Bloody Mary, blending sacred iconography with anarchic Fringe‑style humour. Image supplied.

Nadia Collins: Virgin Bloody Mary – Fringe World Festival
Comedy Club at The Laugh Resort, The Shoe Northbridge

On a small dark stage, where sea blue lighting was absorbed by the sheer black curtain behind it, there was an unsettling, yet holy, hum, holler and shine. Our Holy Mary Mother of God, descended unto the people of Perth, and almost instantly, the people of Perth took to her with laughter.

At this innocuous time and place of 7:30pm on Wednesday the 4^th of February, in the back-alley rooms of The Laugh Resort at The Shoe, Nadia Collins held her last run of the Fringe Festival show, ‘Virgin Bloody Mary’. An idiotic, speech-free, one-woman performance of movement and biblical blasphemy.

Throughout the entirety of the 60-minute show, Mary’s plump sapphire eyes would call on you, ask you, direct you or tell you exactly what it was she wanted to communicate. She would easily have you understand, giggle, disbelieve and act stupidly along for the fun of the skit. With the audience members cast as unpremeditated actors, she connected us. Not through conversation or via the Christian God, but by handing out packets of Coles brand crackers, hummus, red wine, and brie to share. Her hospitality proving that she was a true God-sent sanctified mother, and her offerings to the crowd meant she went down to the servo, showed her I.D and copped about 5 or 6 bottles of red. 

Her constant reference to her God above, blended with the modern Aussie life she was now living on earth, made for a hilarious and unbelievable relatability felt by the crowd. It was a cheeky feeling of collectiveness, that we all knew something about Mary’s time on earth that God did not — from her less than covert sexual escapades, to selling all sorts of Mary merchandise overflowing from her brown knitted basket. She stocked Mary CDs, Mary figurines, Mary jewellery, Mary bibles and picture frames with an offertory she carried around as if she needed to earn a little extra cash, music playing all bubbly and obnoxious like a 90’s infomercial as she went around smiling. 

The Virgin Bloody Mary is a show for someone who doesn’t know much about being any sort of virgin. Taking you in and out of the well-known tale but defiling it, slowing it down and burning it up. The talent and intention behind the writing of every scene was apparent. Using the audience members like mimicking parrots to make background noises that could transform the set into whatever scene she wanted the audience to see. Her use of the crowds own imagination was so present yet simple, the nonverbal production sat in your mind like the visualisation of a sick book. 

Though, it’s worth noting at times her confusing, curious movements into the audience made the show head turning — backwards, to the side and even upwards. But that’s only because you found yourself not wanting to miss out on any of the action. 

In summary, it was a Godly story of the truly fulfilling mission of conception and the winking temptation of hand jobs, cocaine and underground demon raves. One could even say the show felt like that of a very serious but truly engaging game of charades, a masterclass in parody and the perfectly distorted retelling of the life of The Blessed Mary Mother of God — or as Nadia Collins would rather say, ‘Virgin Bloody Mary’.