Pope-ally wired! Why Mark E Smithโs maligned Catholic play is getting a reboot
The Fall frontmanโs play about a papal plot appalled critics when first staged in 1986, with Leigh Bowery starring as a cardinal. Now Hey! Luciani is back โ but does it make any more sense 40 years on? When Steve Hanley joined Manchester post-punk group the Fall, he expected to be playing bass guitar, not the pope on the London stage. โI was the new pope,โ remembers the musician. โI had a full pope suit on with about seven different layers of cassocks, and Iโd come out to wave.โ Hanleyโs papal arrival signalled the final moments of a kaleidoscopic and surreal production that encompassed mafia gangsters, exiled Nazi commanders, and the performance artist Leigh Bowery playing a cardinal. โIt was bizarre,โ Hanley concedes. Continue reading...