Urban Nun

Jane Burpee as the Urban Nun. Hope McIntyre directed the performance as part of Sarasvati Production's Superwomen! Cabaret of Monologues in Winnipeg, March 2015. Photo by Janet Shum.

Synopsis:

A nun recounts a weekend in the country that ends in the venial sin of Cardinal murder, and the cardinal sin of isolation. A different version of this monologue also forms part of a longer play, Into. The inspiration for it came from a Julio Cortazar short story, though this particular Urban Nun was very much a local thing, and based on a very real Cardinal's suppression of progressive thought and action in Canada.

For a copy of the play, please contact the playwright (see Contacts) 

Character:

URBAN NUN - any age.

Time:

Only slightly in the future.

The style and setting:

Should be a little magic. At the start, URBAN NUN is performing her story in a club. It's a routine and maybe a public expiation. As she gets further into the story and her anger deepens, magic elements appear - in particular sound.

Play history:

The wonderful Marium Carvell was the first Urban Nun, in a Toronto Fringe production of Into, directed by Colin Taylor. That was in the early 90s and, since then, the Urban Nun has stormed stages around the world, from Perth, Australia to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories in Canada.

 

Kathy Burkman as the Urban Nun, in a Women at Play production, Columbus, Ohio. 

Zabryna Guevara, star of the USA Channel's 'Burn Notice' was the Urban Nun at NYC's Red Bull Theatre, June 2012. Gaye Taylor Upchurch directed.