Sex, Drugs and a Drunk Jesus: Welcome to ‘White Trash Catholic Circus’
By Dave Wielenga

Remember when an autobiographical one-woman play recounting how a childhood filled with alcoholism and Catholicism drove a shamed and guilt-ridden girl into a young adulthood of sex, drugs, and degradingly bad relationships until she found redemption in the chemical-free serenity of a 12-step program . . . remember when that was considered cutting-edge theater?

Nobody does.

The format has become so clichéd that Amy-Louise Sebelius (it almost too conveniently rhymes with “rebellious”) isn’t at all offended when you tell her about the dread you dragged into the Garage Theatre for the world premiere of White Trash Catholic Circus—the name of her one-woman play, which is chock full of most of those plot elements. It only got more ominous when members of the audience were picked to spin a wheel and determine which vignettes would be performed and in what order.

“I know: you hear ‘one-woman show,’ and you kind of cringe inside,” says Sebelius, her voice husky with empathy (either empathy or the consequences of Thursday-though-Saturday night performances followed by an early-next-morning bartending shift at Gallagher’s). “You’re like, ‘I don’t want to spend the next two hours watching that woman on a stool.’”

But in White Trash Catholic Circus, Sebelius has found a new path through the tedious terrain of the one-woman show. Most obviously, she wrote roles for dozens of other characters (which are played by six other actors). Most significantly, none of them—not even Jeffrey Pearce, who plays Jesus—spend any time purposefully tormenting her. Most tragically, Amy-Louise Sebelius does that to herself. Then again, even that isn’t so very tragic, since all she has to do is stop.

“It’s all about taking personal responsibility for yourself,” summarizes Sebelius, laughing and shrugging as though offering herself as Exhibit A while spending what’s left of the weekend with friends at a quiet sidewalk table at Utopia, her hair tucked under a baseball cap and her hand alternating between a cigarette and a tall glass of dark beer. “Yes, a lot of crazy stuff went down around me. But on top of that—even in the childhood scenes—I just had this incessant need to screw myself up even more.

“It’s like Jesus tells me in the play: ‘Sometimes the things that make you howl in despair also make you an interesting person.’ Somehow, I didn’t feel I was interesting enough—so I purposely sought out these bad situations.”

But just when you begin to wonder whether Sebelius might be a super-freaky second coming of Dr. Laura Schlessinger, she pauses quietly for a moment. Her tone is a bit more subdued when she resumes.

“You know, it was a long, long journey, going through all that,” she says, “a big, long journey.”

Fortunately, Sebelius never lost her sense of humor, as unflinchingly self-deprecating and wickedly witty as it might be. However, for all the play’s sleazy behavior, irreverent portrayals—picture Jesus in a bar, blotto, desperately trying to communicate an obtuse concept to another drunk, then finally giving up and breaking down in tears as he mutters “Fuck! Fuck!”—bad judgments, just desserts, and wacky-rockin’ ’80s soundtrack, the success of White Trash Catholic Circus boils down to the basics: a great script, wonderful acting, and crisp execution.

In addition to her school-of-hard-knocks background, Sebelius is a former professional dancer who is also a trained Shakespearean actor and teaches at the acclaimed Orange County High School of the Arts in Santa Ana. The depth of her experience and training is everywhere in White Trash Catholic Circus, which brings a classic, almost operatic temperament to its modern-horror themes—in that way reminding you of A Clockwork Orange and Cabaret. The clowny face makeup doesn’t hurt those comparisons, either.
After spending nearly five years writing White Trash Catholic Circus, Sebelius wisely dealt director duties to Rory Cowan, and his distanced perspective gives essential balance to a work so self-centered.

As for the spinning wheel that determines the content of each night’s show? Somehow that works, too. By placing certain other scenes among the vignettes—the scenes with Jesus—the play manages to have a story arc almost in spite of itself.

“It’s like a postmodern casserole!” jokes Sebelius, who seems disappointed when you don’t get it. “A casserole—you know, because of the white-trash theme?”

WHITE TRASH CATHOLIC CIRCUS THE GARAGE THEATRE | 251 E SEVENTH ST | LONG BEACH | (866) 811-4111 | THEGARAGETHEATRE.ORG | THURS-SAT 8PM | $12-20 | THROUGH JULY 14

Tags: Theater