Scientists tried to get us to care about our natural world by teaching us scary numbers. You guys didn’t listen. DIRT CHURCH takes another approach, asking whether the way forward all along was actually via punk ecosexual BDSM.
Come be awestruck by the sacred and the profane.
DIRT CHURCH is a liturgy gone wrong; a genre smash of poetry, pulsing movement, filthy original songs, and smutty projection art. For daily readings, we invite you to consider the worms. For prayers, our preachers unleash their bodies against a backdrop of club bangers…
DIRT CHURCH was performed by Jessie Ngaio and Sian Horrocks as part of Melbourne Fringe Festival, 2026
A weird creature trundles towards the stage.
Jessie Ngaio stands and makes a fist.
Jessie Ngaio holds hands on head.
Jessie smiles openly and holds onto Sian Horrocks.
Sian Horrocks squirms through Jessie Ngaio's outsretched legs.
Jessie Ngaio holds aloft a jug of worms and shines a torch at it.
Jessie Ngaio lights up a jug of worms.
Jessie Ngaio holds a jug of worms. Jessie's face is lit pink as they stand in front of the screen. The rest of the staging is lit green.
Jessie Ngaio has turned to look at the screen which reads "But the dirt's full of squirminence".
Sian Horrocks looks pensive.
Jessie Ngaio holds a burnt log.
Sian Horrocks pulls a face.
Both Jessie Ngaio and Sian Horrocks raise their arms in tribulation.
Jessie Ngaio stands at a pulpit watching a video on the screen as Sian Horrocks lays on the ground.
Jessie Ngaio beats an ornately painted drum.
Jessie Ngaio bangs an ornately painted drum whilst Sian Horrocks crouches down nearby.
Two performers wearing only underwear walk to the stage whilst Jessie Ngaio bangs an ornately painted drum.
Jessie Ngaio has glow in the dark face paint on and holds up an ornate book also covered in paint markings.
A performer with orange glow in the dark paint smeared across their face and on the palms of their hands.
A performer holds up a sign that reads "Yo' Face Fulla Worms".
Yellow glow in the dark paint is smeared on the buttocks of a performer. A performer in the background has pink glow in the dark paint smeared across their body.