Nuns ain't what they used to be. Anyone who doubts this proposition should attend Bewley's at lunchtime, where Bread Theatre Company has opened with a running improvisation set in the convent of St Aguna, Ballygansey. It will open your eyes and soften your cough.
It is structured as the filming of a new TV soap, with a cast of 14, some six or seven of whom appear in each daily episode for the next three weeks. Just before the show, audiences are given a form on which to answer a number of questions. For the opening performance, someone chose to make Aguna the patron saint of theatre - my own preference would have been paranoiacs - and the plot is improvised accordingly.
The annual play is this year a co-production between nuns and villagers, the former wanting mime to save learning the lines, the latter with obscure ambitions. Lots of infighting and jealousy ensue. We are assured that, other than the opening and closing songs/hymns and a commercial at the interval, all is on-thespot invention. The co-ordination is so good that there is a suspicion of miracles about it, but it is mostly very funny and original.
Another brief burst of audience involvement brought in the Cuban missile crisis, and poor old Chris de Burgh (with a prayer that we never hear that feckin' song again). This is clearly not in the category of the well-made play, so the ending - for today - more or less fizzles out. But tomorrow is another day, and who knows what, in the world of soap, may bubble up again. It should be worth finding out.
Runs until February 19th; to book phone 01-6726130
