Wow, does Spring Day have an amazing story to tell.
The daughter of hopelessly dysfunctional parents, she found a friend in Jesus as a teenager – and embarked on a thirteen-year odyssey as an evangelical Christian.
Spring, who grew up in the United States, was a lost little girl – who thought she’d found the meaning of life. But her newfound religious friends turned out not to know what they were doing either.
It was only years later, during lockdown, that she realised her sense of panic and danger were related to the end of the world, hellfire and damnation fantasies, she had believed for all those years as a young woman.
Ex-vangelicals refers to the people she eventually found online – and it led her to an organisation which de-programmes ex Christian extremists, in a course which lasts exactly a year – and not a day longer – she explains why.
Day is an experienced comic, with six previous Fringe shows under her belt. But she’s never told this story before on stage – and it is a meaningful one.
She doesn’t manage to find all the laughs in the tale. And there are a couple of comedic cliches here – notably weak punchlines about people from Essex and the over-used alternative comedy catechism ‘Don’t be A Cunt.’
But the story itself provides such a fascinating subject. And Spring Day is a charismatic, likeable figure – who has real wisdom to share.
Day, who has a mild form of cerebral palsy, skips past her disability, she skips past the parental neglect, and she skips past the abusive first marriage. She may have spent years punishing herself in the name of Jesus – but she’s over it. Life is good.
She’s been lucky. Second time around she has found the right man – and he has a lovely Jewish family who have welcomed her, accepted her and given her a real roadmap to happiness.
Day doesn’t do heart-warming– there’s no big emotional climax. And she’s distrustful of optimism – which she blames for getting her into all this trouble in the first place.
Instead, she has a hard-hitting political take on the dangers of Christian cults – in particular their influence on American politics.
She’s tough and she doesn’t sugar coat it – but she’s a real free thinker and it is well worth listening to what she has to say.
Her life has been the most extraordinary adventure. And you will marvel most of all at how she managed to get through all this – and still keep that great big beaming smile upon her face.
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Pleasance Courtyard, Until August 25. Tickets here.
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Picture Matt Crockett
