Nun the Wiser Edinburgh preview
3 days later and back at Etcetera Theatre again. The first piece of good news is that the aircon is actually working properly this time and it feels quite comfortable. Which is appropriate, because that’s exactly the mood that Triona Adams creates within minutes of taking the stage and maintains till the end of the piece.
The performance is a monologue which leads us through a period of about 18 months in Triona Adams’ life. The starting point is her life as a successful London theatrical agent which she abandons to become a nun, and the main narrative concerns her experiences in a Benedictine abbey (don’t call it a convent or a nunnery) somewhere between Oxford and Swindon. There are no big gags in the show, but the tightness of the script and the quality of Triona’s gentle performance and stagecraft made this a spell-binding show which kept the audience at the Etcetera enthralled throughout.
Triona sets the scene with descriptions of the showbiz scene and parties which explain how she became dissatisfied with her personal and professional life before moving seamlessly in to the introduction to the abbey, her decision to become a nun, her life as a postulant and her eventual disillusionment with the life and decision to leave the abbey. From these bare bones, it doesn’t sound too promising but Triona’s very poetic, moving and gently ironic script breathe life into a potentially dry story. The icing on the cake is the delivery of the story, with every line perfectly delivered, every accent perfectly imitated and every pause perfectly timed.
The performance demonstrates the power of the art of storytelling in the oral tradition, which is centuries old and was used to great effect by Charles Dickens who regularly toured his new material on the live circuit of the 19th century. Triona was very well received by the Etcetera audience, who were silent throughout the performance, apart from a new sniggers, but wildly enthusiastic at the end. Another one to seek out at The Gilded Balloon.
