By Ollie Wilson
A packed room awaited the arrival of the nun, Sister Claire, who entered in her habit by the audience door to accompaniment of organ music. The sister worked her way down the aisle, past the tech desk, and onto the stage to sing rather tunefully in Latin, before a twist that totally cracked up the audience.
Then there was a good deal of vacuum cleaning and sweeping of the stage and front row. It reminded me of the sort of clowning around that the legendary Jimbo used to do on the London comedy circuit of the mid-to-late 1990s. If I can seen it in a small comedy club, I would probably have found it hilarious. But, somehow, in its Edinburgh setting, I found it ponderous.
Australian performer Claire Robin is clearly a talented character comedian and clown. With a quick change of headwear, she became a Christian youth club leader lecturing the youngsters on 'S-E-X'. In no time, she had the audience on their feet, thrusting and dusting to Marvin Gaye's Sexual Healing. And so it went on. As Sister Claire again, she ripped up bread - the body of Christ - and stuffed countless grapes into her mouth, not a pretty sight, before spitting them out and asking for a volunteer from the audience to eat the disgusting mess! Ugh! However, a strange giant sitting in front of me obliged with alacrity!
As I was making notes, I kept the page with an old card from a Roman Catholic Archbishop friend and wondered what he would make of it all. Was it profane? Blasphemous? Obscene? I guess the clergy in the main would be bemused.
But it was a gutsy and unusual performance and the audience absolutely loved it, praise be to God!
Star Rating: ****
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