Review by Steve Bennett

Review

A satire is only as strong as its target, which is exactly
where New York based double act God's Pottery come terribly unstuck.

They've found their seat on the religion-bashing bandwagon
with an almost affectionate spoof of a couple of dippy born-again
Christians with sandals, pudding-bowl haircuts, and sensible
jumpers emblazoned with the slogan 'Virginity Rocks'.

But the characters' only sin is naïvity. They are not
the evil face of organised religion, just those too simple-minded
to avoid being drawn into it. Their good intentions are misguided,
certainly, and over-earnest, but that's hardly enough to get
vicious about without appearing a cruel bully. So, by necessity,
Gideon Lamb and Jeremiah Smallchild end up far too close to the
sort of dopey do-gooder they are supposed to be mocking.

The premise is that this show is a fundraiser for a young
boy stricken by cancer. 'Though we can't say what kind of cancer,
or where it is,' they confess.

The gig is, inevitably, a succession of acoustic Christian
folk parodies. Only thing is, one you've heard one acoustic Christian
folk parody, you've heard them all. The lyrics are not over-burdened
with jokes, so what we're left with is a take-off of the style
­ and that soon becomes repetitive, however accurate it is.

Vignettes offering youngsters advice on coping with modern
urban life break up the songs, but again it just taps at the
characters' lack of understanding at the real world, repeated
times four.

God's Pottery are appealing performers; they've rich voices
and have perfectly captured the distant gaze, the cloying sincerity
and the gullibility of the type they're mocking, but the script
needs serious work.

There's no edge or depth to the characters at all. We know
nothing about them, save for the fact that they're God-botherers.
Maybe they turned to Jesus after some breakdown, or to escape
an addiction, or in repentance for a crime. We just don't know,
it's not even hinted at.

Their best song hints at a vague bewilderment of other religions,
but does their superficial niceness shroud and offensive bigotry
that would make this a funnier show? No. The problem with these
fake Christians is that they're just too damn tolerant.

Steve Bennett

Review date: 1 Jan 2007
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett