The Story
Nuns’ Chorus is set in 1950s Ireland and is based around an enclosed order of Carmelite nuns and their ‘enforced holiday’ of seven days and seven nights to Galway Bay. The play sees the nuns, having very reluctantly left the convent for the first time in many years, explore the paths which led them to convent life, and to a deepening understanding of the meaning of their sisterhood. This is a sensitive, honest, at times funny, at times deeply moving journey through a very challenging part of Ireland’s story. The play also includes Irish music, song and dance, and references to great Irish literature.
The Background
Written by Sally Mulready, who lived from the age of 4 to
16 in a Catholic convent in Dublin, the play gives a rare look at the stories behind the nuns, with an honesty about the lives and motivations of these women who played such a big role in the social, political and religious history of Ireland.
The Cast
Nuns’ Chorus is performed by older Irish people who are members of the Irish Pensioners Choir and the Irish Pensioners Theatre Group, run by the Irish Elderly Advice Network charity. Despite delivering some quite remarkable performances, none of them are professional actors and most of them have never been involved in theatre before this project. The project aims to tell a story, and to do so with performances by older Irish people for whom these times were real. The group is joined by a superb younger actress and musician, Jacquelyn Hynes, with musical accompaniment throughout from Billy Faughnan.
Nuns' Chorus by Sally Mulready 