Prudence Play (or Sister Prudence is NOT Gay) 481 words, 3 minutes read time.
In her dreams, Sister Prudence is wearing a sparkly little black dress and tap-dancing to Britney Spears. It’s a contrast from her boring, regimented life as a Catholic nun. Now and again, however, the nuns go on vocational visits to St Augustine’s school in a bus. There she sits next to her friend, another sister, who tells her about a ‘hot priest’ she’d seen in Fleabag on a sabbatical visit to her family. In this one-woman show, the author and performer, Caroline Dunn, uses a handheld mask when she plays the other sister.
Prudence has grown up with a fear of eternal punishment. She learned from a very young age that you go to hell if you don’t watch your step. She tries to be like her name, prudent, careful with decision making, careful with sin. Becoming a nun was her ‘get outta hell backup plan.’
She lies to herself and the school kids, ‘I’m so at peace. Jesus called me since I was a little girl,’ but in the confession, she admits this lie, but still tries to convince herself that she only admires the other sister as ‘a friend, a friend. She’s got nice hair. A nice face. God blessed her with this. Sure, ‘there’s nothing wrong with admiring a friend, right?’
The action switches between Sister Prudence thinking aloud, Prudence in the confessional and in conversations with the attractive sister. She goes to the fish fry – she hates fish – ‘just to socialise.’ She tries to deny the blatantly obvious, that her friendly thoughts and admiration for the other sister are much more than that.
Just hanging out, having great craic with the the other sister, Prudence gathers her courage and recalls a summer when she was about 12-13 when she spent a whole summer with another girl of the same age. She blurts out, ‘you remind me of her. I love you.’ Suddenly a door slams in her face. ‘Shut up! Stop! You should not have told me. You need to talk to the priests, to the Superior and about your history’ and she gives out the old line about hating the sin and loving the sinner. The other sister grasses her up. How will she cope with the truth? How will she deal with the betrayal of her confidence? What would you do in her circumstances?
This insightful production brings to life the internal struggles of many gay people of faith as they try to reconcile what they’ve been taught with who they are. The probing, intrusive questions of the investigating priest, Father Moriarty, and the use of shame to bring her back in line all ring true. With good humour, Caroline Dunn’s powerful, haunting script throws a spotlight on the mental conflict conservative religious teachings impose on gay people.
Reviewed by David Kerr
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