Religious levity delivers serious message

In an isolated convent, three nuns are sitting out what seems like an interminable period of devotion and prayer. Constantly hungry, they've been there so long that any feelings of love for each other have disintegrated into a squabble of petty deceptions and lies.

Performed in a nonsensical language devised by the company, this absurdly funny three-hander recalls plays such as Lorca's The House Of Bernarda Alba and Genet's The Maids in its examination of repressed female sexuality. Out of boredom, the two younger nuns turn on the elder, taunting her with nearly every taboo in Catholicism, in particular her forbidden, pent-up sexual desires.

At one point, they pretend they've been men all along, a discovery that sends the elder almost mad with terror. Nearly every touchstone of Catholicism is invoked here, more often than not accompanied by a grandiose soundtrack that lends the dark subject matter a terrific sense of Hammer horror.

Irreverent but never gratuitous, this is an extremely funny but deadly serious piece about faith and loneliness cut through with a chilling savagery.

Until Mon (except today), Aurora Nova @ St Stephen's (V8), 1pm, £10 to £12. www.auroranova.org

The Convent
Aurora Nova @ St Stephen’s (V8), Edinburgh