RUN TO THE NUNS - REVIEW - RIVERSIDE STUDIOS

After two development runs in the Symposium Festival in Kent and Brighton Fringe 2023, the new musical; Run to the Nuns has made its way to Riverside Studios in Hammersmith for its third development.

With laughs and melodies galore, Run to the Nuns welcomes you to Cressida’s Convent, a home for everyone. Run by a group of hospitable nuns and doctors, the show focuses on the lives of three of the staff; Doc, Kat and Sage and the chaos that ensues when someone from Kat’s past shows up at the clinic.

The score composed by Rosa Lucaks features richly layered harmonies, musical parodies, and lots of witty lyricism. It perfectly matched the energy of the piece and I found myself humming the title song “Run to the Nuns” on my journey home. The show is performed by a group of actor-musicians, with each of them playing instruments when not actively participating in the scene which emulates the welcoming atmosphere of the convent perfectly.

I think the show would benefit from a longer run time. I wanted more time to get to know the characters and explore the convent a bit more. The main obstacle of the plot revolves around trying to find the funds to keep the convent going, however, I didn’t feel like we had built enough of an understanding of why the convent was so special. I would have liked to have more perspective of the other patients within the convent; or even more of the nuns. It felt like we just needed a little more time with them, and I think if the run time was more generous, this would allow for that.

The chemistry between Dani Croston as Kat and Eve Pereia as Orlagh is easily the strongest element of the show. Croston’s performance is so naturalistic that at one point, I wasn’t sure if they were speaking scripted lines or improvising. Pereia’s physicality as the awkward and tightly-wound Orlagh perfectly balances Kat’s mellowed nature and the “will-they, won’t-they” nature of their relationship is delightful.

One element that feels unfair to comment on is sound. The show suffered with technical difficulties on the night that I went and in the end, the show went ahead without any of the performers being mic’d. That being said, the whole production did an excellent job of working around this issue and if I hadn’t been told, I would have assumed that the show was not designed to be performed with microphones – their resilience was inspiring.

For a new piece of theatre, it is clear that Run to the Nuns has the ability to build a name for itself. With a bit more development, I believe it could become something very very special. The performances are outstanding and I look forward to seeing what the future holds for this promising production.

{This is a Work-in-Progress production, therefore we have not awarded a star rating}

{🎟 AD – PR invite – Tickets were gifted in exchange for an honest review}

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