The opening performance of Nunsense was a spectacular production of laughs and smiles. The play took place August 22-25 in the Sale Theatre, and there was an option for dinner through the Blue Ridge Dinner Theatre.
The cast included Sister Mary Regina, Mother Superior (Amanda Spivey); Sister Mary Hubert, Mistress of Novices (Kristina Stump); Sister Robert Anne (Lana Whited); Sister Mary Amnesia (Emily Blankenship-Tucker); Sister Mary Leo (TJ Baker); and the Mount St. Helen’s Band (Fair Robey and Jalaiyah Moore).
The play was hilarious, I had never been to a production of the Theatre other than Macbeth, this was a pleasant surprise of comedy and light humor.
The theatre came alive once the play started. The nuns ran through the isle encouraging the audience to interact with the performers.
The Mother Superior opened up to the audience by saying that the coven had gotten into a certain predicament with Sister Julia cooking some bad soup and killing more than half the coven.
The audience couldn’t help but laugh at the bad circumstances of the four nuns being in the freezer after not being able to bury them because of the cost of burial.
So Sister Hubert convinces the crowd to help them in the play by clapping to a couple of songs to help with the overall production.
The variety show offered a wide variety of comedy from high-kicking nuns to a puppet show by Sister Mary Paul played by Emily Blankenship-Tucker.
The puppet show was my favorite part due to her excellent acting and captivating the audience. She was not only acting, but she seemed happy, like she enjoyed what she was doing. She reached out to the audience and included them in the joy as well.
The hard work was so evident that all the cast members looked cohesive and acted quite well.
“A cast usually wishes for a few more rehearsals before a show debuts, and Nunsense was no exception,” said English Professor Lana Whited “We had learned both the finale (‘Holier than Thou’) and the choreography five days before the show opened! We had also replaced the Reverend Mother after the initial casting due to a health issue. But somehow, in the end, the magic happened.”
As an audience member, I especially enjoyed the finale “Holier than Thou”. This was a comedy-packed song that had you laughing from the start.
“I thought the play was comical and goofy. It was a good play too just go relax and laugh with friends” said sophomore, Jackson Goodknight.
This play was definitely a 10 out of 10. It surpassed my expectations of the play, and I was pleasantly surprised by the enjoyment that I took away from a night of fun at the theatre.
