Nuns
Looking at the world today we witness plenty of examples of political events which seem ripe for satire, be it a British Prime Minister who seems to have spent the last two years crafting a Brexit bill which no one will vote for whilst maintaining even in the dying weeks of the UK’s EU membership that she will somehow discover the magic formula which will make it palatable to all. Whilst across the Atlantic events appear even weirder with a US president whose behaviour appears odder by the day as he now holds a large portion of the country to ransom, forcing them to work for no pay until he gets his desired wall, a wall he in all likehood will never actually get as his poll ratings sink through the floor, and we witness the devastating economic effects this has on the federal workers. Added to this toxic mix is a vice president who calls his wife “mother” and refuses to have meetings with female officials unless chaperoned. That very same wife, Karen Pence, has returned to teach at a school which bans LGBTQ students and staff while also encouraging female staff members to sign pledges that they will submit to their husbands. How this is monitored is anyone’s guess. We might be forgiven for thinking we had somehow stumbled onto the set of a badly written sitcom rather than real life events. But of course our daily news reports keep reminding us of the fact that this is indeed all too real.
One of the unexpected upshots of our current situation is that it has become a golden age for comedy writers and a recent fringe production called Nuns is a delightful addition to this current burgeoning genre. Nuns is a madcap comedy set in a nunnery, where appearances are deceptive and the inhabitants are neither as content nor as obedient as they might at first appear.
Written by Australian playwright Robert Luxford, Nuns starts innocently enough as Sister Catherine and Sister Roza share an illicit cigarette, innocent that is until you realize that this is the one transgression which is absolutely forbidden. As Sister Catherine points out with startling clarity, the church is happy to overlook greater sins since it suits them (and perhaps also since those who commit them are most likely men, who occupy high rungs on the ecclesiastical ladder). The two nuns are surprised by the younger and more pious Sister Bernadette, who immediately feels compelled to inform the Mother Superior, but Sister Catherine and Sister Roza have other ideas and thus begins a deadly game of blackmail and counter blackmail which engulfs the entire nunnery with escalating consequences.
Nuns plays like Life of Brian in high heels, as the play highlights the theme that religion taken to extremes is simply not sustainable. You see this illustrated quite clearly in the play, where none of the inhabitants abide by the rules of the convent. The Mother Superior is secretly having an affair with a priest, the ruthlessly ambitious Sister Catherine is determined to topple her and take her place, while the exuberant Sister Roza can’t clean without breaking into a dirty dance. Even the seemingly innocent Sister Bernadette has a secret of her own; she’s wild about women wearing knitwear!
Dance and music are used to great effect and highlight the increasing insanity in the convent as the stakes keep rising. With Sister Bernadette attempting to play both competing sides off each other with various incriminating recordings, the Mother Superior ultimately reveals why she has lasted so long in power - her ability to be utterly ruthless. Finding out Sister Bernadette’s weakness she finds a way to use it against her to retrieve her recording.
What makes Nuns shine above most satirical plays is its ability to somehow never lose sight of the reality it is satirising. Luxford’s play skilfully illustrates the fact that religious orthodoxy is simply unliveable since it ultimately leads those who try to live by its rules to feel unfulfilled. Desire is repressed but never for long, since it always threatens to erupt at any moment and engulf all those around. The acting throughout Charlotte Everest’s production is superb with Cecile Sinclair a standout as the not so gullible Sister Bernadette.
Nuns is a collaboration between Valerie Sadoh’s She’s Diverse production company and Dutch Dame Productions. Its two co-founders also appear in the production, Cecile Sinclair as Sister Bernadette and Natalya Wolter-Ferguson playing the ever scheming Sister Catherine. The production was followed by a Q&A which focused on how theatre can facilitate more female-centric projects and if Nuns is anything to go by then it’s a question which urgently needs to be addressed. This London premier of Nuns was an utter delight and most importantly a very topical night out.
Nuns runs until the 26th January at the Tristan Bates Theatre.
form-idea london, 21st January 2019. @BeverlyAAndrews
Photo credit © Elise Dumontet
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