The Exorcist isn’t what most people consider a classic Christmas movie (though it did open on December 26 when it premiered in 1973). But that didn’t stop playwright Vince Kelley from using it as the basis of his holiday-themed parody The E(XMAS)IST, which turns the film’s story into a campy and queer stage play featuring Santa Claus and Krampus in key roles. The show premiered last holiday season at Detroit’s Ringwald Theatre and is now making its way down to Austin for Christmas 2025.
“My friend saw this show in Detroit… and she said, ‘CB, you have to do this show. It is so your style,’” says CB Goodman, who is directing the Austin version. “I contacted the theater and I was like, ‘Hey, I heard you have a great play.’ They put me in connection with the playwright and he sent me a script, and I read it and I actually laughed out loud multiple times. And I was like, we have to do this. And so I'm really excited that we are taking this beautiful, funny, over the top, completely hilarious play that they have written and putting it on in Austin with our ensemble. And I feel like we're putting a different little flavor on it.”
Kyle Romero plays Santa Claus, who fills the role played in the film by Max Von Sydow (which is to say, the titular exorcist). He says he found it easy to get into that St. Nick state of mind. “When you're in the suit and everything, and everyone's addressing you as… this mythical figure,” he says, “it's easy to get into the headspace, you know? And the campiness of the show allows you to kind of go wherever you want to go, pretty much. We're not super worried about the logic of any of this, you know? So if one second I've got a German accent, the next I don't, nobody's really gonna be paying attention.”
Jose Da’Hype plays another legendary Christmas character in The E(XMAS)IST – Krampus, who in Central European folklore punishes naughty children while St. Nicholas rewards the nice ones. “Being a villain has always been my dream,” Da’Hype says. “I was like, if I'm gonna play any character and be the lead of something, I want it to be a villain because villains always have the best ****ing lines.”
And you can’t really parody The Exorcist without a possessed child in need of an exorcism, which is where Vincent Tomasino comes in, playing The E(XMAS)IST’s version of the innocent Regan. “She's really just, you know, kind of [an] everygirl, 12 year old, all-American [girl],” he says. “I know CB through the world of clowning, and so when she brought up this role, I just instantly thought of like, you know, basically not shaving my beard and just putting on a wig and just… letting the spirit of this 12 year old girl just shine through.”
“I think Vinny is so fun to watch” Goodman says, “because [he’s] playing her so good. Because she is the good girl and is on Santa's nice list. [But] there's some scenes in the play where it's like maybe Reagan didn't make it on the nice list.”
Part of the fun of staging The E(XMAS)IST, everyone agrees, is recreating the original film’s memorable special effects scenes live onstage and with a minimal budget. “How do we make somebody levitate for $20?” Da’Hype asks. “It is a blast to even know that I'm working with some geniuses in that department.”
“CB – and everybody on the team – has come up with some really creative and fun solutions and I can't wait for people to see it,” Romero adds.
This is only the second staging of The E(XMAS)IST – the script hasn’t been published yet, though Goodman is hoping to help make that happen – but the cast is starting to talk about the possibility of the play becoming a campy holiday tradition. “We all have this impulse where we wanna come together as a community in the holidays,” Romero says, “but… you know, you want to do it in your own way, right? And this show, is, yeah, part of that tradition. We’re gathering together as weird little freaks and celebrating Christmas and enjoying community and enjoying each other's company and laughing and I love it. It should be a new Christmas tradition for your family!”
“Seventeen-and-up family members,” Goodman quickly adds (the show’s not really for kids). “I think it's a great show for like the cousins. So if your family's all together and you're like, we gotta get out of the house, [then] this is the show where you can go and just laugh and have a great time and just kind of leave the holiday stress behind.”
She also makes note that, for all its campiness and irreverence, there’s still a tiny little tender holiday message in there. “I'll admit this, I get a little teary at the end,” she says. “And they do a good job of bringing the comedy but also bringing like a really good heart. And it does have this really sweet little ending, I think. Yeah, and it makes me happy cry.”
