THE NUN. To 5 April.

Glasgow

THE NUN
by Denis Diderot translated and adapted by Phoebe von Held, Finn Fordham and Caroline Warman

Citizens' Theatre Circle Studio To 5 April 2003
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Mat 29 March 3pm
Runs 2hr One interval

TICKETS: 0141 429 0022
Review: Timothy Ramsden 15 March

A quarter-millennium old, this still has the power to shock.Two novels of sexual power and violence from 18th century France still carry a visceral punch. Laclos' Les Liaisons Dangereuses was dramatised years ago by Christopher Hampton, for the RSC. Enlightenment philosopher Diderot's brief La Religieuse is now made theatre for the Citizens' Circle Studio, an intimate in the round space suited to claustrophobic emotional cruelty.

Though it ends by mentioning the natural there's complex artifice going on here: The Nun is a fiction used to denounce religious violence and hypocrisy. And it's presented as a contrivance, the history of a non-existent woman, begun by Diderot and friend in the form of faked letters designed to win back to Reason a friend who's gone over to religion.

So Derwent Watson's Diderot, kitted out in the stylised production with an unfetching mix of modern suit and 18th century patterned costume, persistently watches over the unfolding of his invention. It's a cold, hard world in which a young woman, - Candida Benson, calmly assertive even as she's worn down in virtual imprisonment - more beautiful but less legitimate than her sisters, is concealed in a convent, her resistance battling calmly against her experience under three Mothers Superior.

At first, incarceration's bad enough, but a new Superior brings flagellation and religious severity. Suzanne's rebellion brings on institutionalised bullying, convent boss Sainte-Christine encouraging the worst in the nuns. It's a dirty-tricks scenario calculated to isolate and demoralise.

A change of cloister seems propitious, with Freya Dominic's new boss bringing apparent earthly lightness. But Suzanne's the pampered girl of the moment, her Mother Superior smiling her way into the new arrival's bed, as last month's spurned favourite looks on in fury.

Diderot knew how far he dare go: there's always a churchman on hand to expose corruption. That's usually Brendan Hooper, centre-stage in chilling combat with Anne Marie Timoney's sadistic Superior, or in a corner interviewing Suzanne through a full-height metal grille: this is a cold, comfortless world, where thin-sheets barely cover Suzanne's metallic bed.

The Nun gives a concentrated picture of institutionalised power abuse, of social hypocrisy and authorial mendacity.

Suzanne Simonin: Candida Benson
Diderot: Derwent Watson
Grimm/3 Confessors/Priest/Archdeacon/M. Manouri: Brendan Hooper
Mothe Moni/Mother Superior Sainte-Christine: Anne Marie Timoney
Suzanne's Mother/Mother Superior of Arpajon: Freya Dominic
Maid/Sainte-Ursule/Sainte-Therese: Sally Reid

Director/Designer: Phoebe von Held
Lighting: Michael Lancaster

2003-03-21 01:28:51