Catholic Guilt

In this daring and immersive production, Kelly McCaughan fearlessly challenges the deep-rooted sensibilities surrounding religion. With a unique blend of audience participation, cringey personal recounts, and stand-up adjacent clowny performance, ‘Catholic Guilt’ offers a poignant, subversive, and hilarious exploration of the impossible standards imposed by the Catholic Church.

Kelly McCaughan (she/her) is an actor, writer, comedian, clown, and theater-maker. After graduating with a BA in theater from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, she moved to Philadelphia to dip her toes into the theater and comedy scene. There, she started doing comedy with her award-winning sketch comedy group, High Dramma. They went on to participate in multiple sketchfests including NYC, Montreal, Philly, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore. She branched out to create her own work and her critically acclaimed solo show, ‘Catholic Guilt’ (writer, producer, actor). ‘Catholic Guilt’ has had multiple sold out runs on the East Coast, and a full run at the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe at Underbelly. It was nominated for ‘Best Newcomer’ in the Edinburgh Comedy Awards with rave reviews from established comedy outlets such as ‘The Wee Review’ and ‘Chortle’. 

“This full bore counter-ritual of a one-woman show is something of a revelation (…) fusion of performance art, burlesque, one-woman bildungsroman, and outrage comedy, ‘Catholic Guilt’ is brilliantly performed, genuinely shocking (not an easy feat at the Fringe), and a work of extraordinary boldness.” ~ The Wee Review

“Catholic Guilt is a raunchy, unhinged clapback at every sexual and social hang-up instilled by years of religious indoctrination, which makes for an outrageously entertaining hour.” ~ Chortle