Theatre review: 27 - Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh

ALTHOUGH it’s often difficult to trace its outline, there is a drama lurking somewhere at the heart of Abi Morgan’s new play 27, a lavish new co-production with the National Theatre of Scotland, directed by Vicky Featherstone.

The play is set in a convent somewhere in Britain, so far north – if such a place exists – that rivers routinely freeze all winter. The community is ageing, 13 of the 16 sisters are over 75, and the routine of their days is shaped by cooking, gardening, prayer, and addiction to TV quizzes and soap operas.

So when a team of scientists arrive, anxious to use the elderly nuns as a study group for research into Alzheimer’s, the chance to be useful seems irresistible, not least to the incoming Mother Superior, Sister Ursula, a tempestuous type of 50 or so who struggles with her own demons of doubt, and is increasingly distraught by the sudden and rapid mental decay of her mentor and predecessor, the brilliant Sister Miriam. Ursula’s story is the living centre of the play, as she deals with the crushing grief of Miriam’s decline, and wrestles with the implications of her intense friendship with Richard, the scientist leading the research; and there are moments, dotted through a long evening of two hours and 40 minutes, when her struggle comes sharply and beautifully into focus.

Sadly, though – and despite a compelling performance from Maureen Beattie in this key role – Morgan’s play is so poorly constructed, and so inclined to ramble off into long sequences of half-baked speculation about life, science, exploitation and everything, that the shape of the story is often buried in tedious chat, particularly among the scientists. Marooned with the rest of the cast in a massive concrete-look bunker of a set that muffles sound, sucks vitality from the action, and hides part of the stage from large sections of the audience, Nicholas Le Prevost and Benny Young give eye-wateringly dull performances as the older scientists. And from a cast of nine, only the core group of four nuns – also including the wonderful Colette O’Neil as Miriam – have anything significant to say about the play’s central debate between a continuing commitment to faith and the godlessness that often leads to despair.

Given the resources available, it’s surprising the NTS and Lyceum should have staged a piece so turgidly old-fashioned in form, and astonishing that they have done so little to knock Morgan’s text into a more interesting, dynamic shape. This is not a wasted evening – the play’s themes are important, and some performances well worth seeing. At the moment, though, 27 looks less like a finished play, and more like a confused, unedited work in progress, overwhelmed by the weight of a huge production it cannot match, in strength, structure or substance.

Rating: ***