Xenu is Loose: Sci-Fi Musical Parodying Scientology Coming in August
If you’re into Science Fiction, especially the satirical kind, or if you’re into musical, especially the religion-trashing kind, you might wanna visit the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh this year for the premier of Xenu is Loose, a rock and roll musical mocking the Church of Scientology.
The full title of the show, by the way, is
Xenu is Loose! Cower puny Humans as the Dark Prince of the Galactic Federation rains Atomic Death once more upon your Pitiful Planet - The Musical!
Here’s a quick synopsis taken from the official Xenus is Loose website:
“Xenu is Loose is a new satirical Sci-Fi Musical based on the beliefs of the Cult of Scientology.
Jennifer, a young, beautiful high-school student finds her life transformed when she discovers the purifying power of L Ron. Hubbard’s Scientology. But when Xenu, Alien Overlord and timeless nemesis of all that is good, escapes his ancient galactic prison; she and handsome Scientologist Troy must summon every ounce of cunning and resourcefulness to save the world from, like, Total Atomic Destruction.
A combination of live rock music, spectacular laser combat, cutting-edge multimedia projection and stunning design will make this the most exciting new musical on the fringe!”
Familiarize yourself with Scientology and you will enjoy the show more. Scientology Illustrated is a pretty neat place to start. And who/what is Xenu anyway? Well he’s kind of like the Catholic equivalence of Jesus, except, um, Xenu is really really evil and Jesus is really really good; Xenu is an intergalactic alien that brings sickness and sorrow to the world whereas Jesus is a magician that knows how to do all sorts of funky tricks, like walking on water, or getting killed and coming back to life again. Oh and Jesus loves you very very much too, being the Son of God and all that.
If you ask me, I’d say the Xenu story is so much more entertaining than the Jesus one. Which is probably why the Church of Scientology demands a lot of money if you want to know about Xenu, while the Catholic Church just throws around the story about Jesus for free and ask for your money for something else instead. Thanks to the Internet though, you don’t need to pay a huge amount of money to know what Xenu is all about:
Just like the Holy See condemns or boycotts many brilliant movies such as Priest or The Magdalene Sisters, The Church of Scientology is also calling for boycott of Xenu is loose, plus “considering what legal action to take against the play”, reports Scotland on Sunday. The show director says to the newspaper,
“We hope to open people’s eyes about Scientology and the sophisticated and complex psychological techniques it uses to recruit people and keep them within the organisation. In our opinion it is a cult.”
Scientologists hate the C word, just ask BBC reporter John Sweeney. Interestingly, the UK spokeperson for Scientology says to the same paper, “There is nothing in the theology or philosophy of Scientology about belief in aliens.”
I guess this is why religions can never be wrong: if the Vatican can change their stories about the sun and the earth and their treatment of Galileo, Scientology can also change theirs about Xenu and Thetans.
Too bad I’m not going to make it to the Fringe Festival for the show, but those in Edinburgh or planning to visit, go see it and tell us what you think!
Popularity: 58%