OUR LADIES of Perpetual Succour is The National Theatre of Scotland's second visit to the Galway International Arts Festival and a raucously entertaining affair it is too.
Adapted by Lee Hall from Alan Warner’s 1998 novel The Sopranos, the play follows a group of teenage convent schoolgirls from Oban on a day trip to Edinburgh for a school choir contest. It quickly becomes clear that the nuns have had little or no impact on these lassies’ world views.
Booze and sex are top of their agenda and both are pursued with rowdy and shameless zest. Riotous adventures ensue once their bus deposits them in Edinburgh and the madcap carry-on continues when they make it back home that night to their local ‘Man Trap’ dance venue.
The first half feels like being swept along on a Rag Week skite, but thereafter space is found for quieter, more affecting, scenes where different members of the group reveal their private vulnerabilities and we see the tenderness beneath the bravado.
In his programme notes, Lee Hall writes that this is more of a gig than a play and one of the great pleasures of the production is the wonderful harmony singing that punctuates the action. Backed by a live band, the set list alternates between classical songs from the likes of Bach and Handel, which the girls sing in school choir mode, and terrific renderings of ELO songs that sound-track their pub-crawl antics.
Director Vicky Featherstone gets great performances from her six young actresses, who not only depict the choirgirls but also the various people they encounter in the course of the day’s adventures and mishaps.
Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour continues at the Town Hall Theatre until Saturday night. For tickets see www.giaf.ie
