NUN SLUT is a sacrilegious, fun show. Sister Mary Claire should pray to Our Lord and ask for His forgiveness. On the other hand, NUN SLUT is clever and entertaining and the audience lapped up the humour and embraced Claire Robin’s witty foray into the connection between body and spirit.
Claire opens with a Latin hymn, Ubi Caritas, and with her delightful voice and expressive face captures and distorts the concept of a devout nun with a strong religious belief. The crowd in the tiny Laneway Theatre at The Enmore soon caught onto the joke and revelled in the performance. Her mixture of the sacred with the profane and her brilliant facial expressions make this segment delightful and memorable. Some of the audience participants will be either traumatised or still basking in their glory. The patrons were equally delighted with her characterisation of the youth worker talking to a group for Year 9 students about the temptations of the flesh and the ridiculous ways to control or deflect them. It was lots of fun, or in the words of the youth worker, “TMF – too much fun.”Out of character Claire told us about her time embracing Catholicism and her connection to Barnaby and his pregnant mistress. Intrinsically it is a funny story and her little asides and observations add to the laughs. Armidale sounds like it is an interesting and amusing town.
Back in character as a nun, Claire performed a gross breaking of the bread ceremony and achieved a remarkable level of audience participation from some selected members. As Sister Mary Claire said to one, “There is a special place in heaven for you.”
Claire Robin’s intense facial expressions are a special part of the performance and perfectly suited to a small venue like Enmore’s Laneway Theatre.
Claire was accompanied by Irene Nicola on keyboards and vocals. The technical side was handled by Alex Troy. I saw the performance on the Enmiore Theatre on the 27th April as part of the Sydney Comedy Festival 2024.
NUN SLUT was a great hour of fun and is thoroughly recommended. There is one more show, April 28th at 5.45pm. Catch it if you can.
