YOUR GUIDE TO EDINBURGH'S FESTIVALS
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
ED2014 4/5 Reviews ED2014 Theatre Reviews
The Secret Wives Of Andy Williams (Old Trunk Productions)
By Tim Bano | Published on Friday 15 August 2014
A wayward novice in a nunnery is charged with caring for three orphans. This challenge changes her and those around her in Sadie Haslers bizarre, oddly touching comedy like Father Ted with a darker streak. Fluid direction by Sarah Mayhew allows the actors to play multiple characters, and scene changes are underlined by subtle lighting changes on the blank, prop-free stage. What starts as a strange black comedy swerves smoothly into an intelligent, non-reductive look at crises of faith, revealing the humanity hidden beneath a habit. Sister Mabel Matthew (Sadie Hasler) is particularly wonderful caring, world-weary and supremely wise. The absurdity jars occasionally with the starkly poignant moments, but the strength of characterisation and direction aid the message that coming-of-age can happen at any age.
Underbelly, Cowgate, until 24 Aug.
tw rating 4/5 | [Tim Bano]
