It is disappointing to attend a play that has gone through the substantial requirements of a theatrical production and to find very little of merit in the experience. The dialogue is clunky. The acting is poor. A lot of the concepts raised and discussed are misguided and insulting to an intelligent audience.

Three young nuns in a convent form a pro-smoking clique in a convent in contravention of the rules and to the chagrin of Mother Superior, played unconvincingly by Fabiola Meza. The young nuns operate in fear of Mother Superior but there is no sense of menace or domination in her performance.

Naomi Parszos as Sister Catherine, the leader of the young nuns, has some stage presence and her performance is the strongest of the actors. Kim-Cuong Do (Sister Roza) does a nice line in quirkiness. Kit Bennett transforms Sister Bernadette from an ingenue to a manipulator but does not hit the right tone. Her best scene is when she is stoned on what she believes to be herbal medicine and this scene also provides one of the few laughs of the evening.

Some themes are explored and are either not followed through, are terribly out of date or are offensive. The prohibition of smoking is briefly explored as being symptomatic of the abhorrent nexus between government, big business and organised religion. It is also paralleled with the patriarchal dominance of the church but this is undermined in a main scene in which Mother Superior wants to dye her hair, and wear make-up and eye shadow.

This play is an old fashioned farce involving a couple of sex tapes and mixing up of shoes left under beds, and it feels as unsubtle as a Hanna-Barbera cartoon. I wondered if it was meant to be so bad that it was actually good, like SPRINGTIME FOR HITLER in THE PRODUCERS, but it does not achieve those lofty heights.

Uma Kali Shakti production of Robert Luxford’s NUNS is playing at The Imperial Hotel, Erskineville on Thursdays at 8pm, Saturdays at 6pm and Sundays at 8pm until Sunday 15th April, 2012.

© Mark Pigott

26th March, 2012

Tags: Sydney Theatre Reviews- NUNS, Robert Luxford, Fabiola Meza, Naomi Parszos, Kim- Cuong Do, Kit Bennett, Uma Kali Shakti, Imperial Hotel Erskineville, Sydney Arts Guide, Mark Pigott.