You'll be 'nun the wiser' at the Island

Written and performed by Triona Adams and directed by Owen Lewis, it tells the true story of a showbiz agent who swapped premieres for prayers, and spent a year in a convent trying to be holy. Sister Triona reveals what really goes on underneath the habit.

When she was 26, Triona Adams gave up a glitzy career as a theatrical agent in order become a nun in an enclosed Benedictine convent. She spent a year there. This show recounts the bittersweet, comic story of a modern, emancipated woman trying to become a nun. It turned out she was not a natural.

Living with 13 strong-minded women, ages ranging from 54 to 100, Triona plunged into a way of life designed over a century ago and discovered, the hard way, how modern women's values, intellect and spirituality can both collide and harmonise with a more ancient way of female life – and how extraordinary relationships can be formed as a result. On a diet of Spam fritters and Dad's Army, cut off from the rest of the world, her story also has its funny side.

With reality TV probing into even our police cells and hospital operating theatres, Nun The Wiser offers a unique glimpse behind one of the very last of society's closed doors. With convents closing and vocations at an all-time low, does the 21st century convent have a place in our future? And what of the women who have dedicated their lives to the Christian faith as nuns?

BBC Radio 4 commissioned a play about Triona's time as a nun – The Lemon Squeezer – which aired on March 3 2009 as The Afternoon Play. She has since developed this theatrical version of the her story for solo performance and premiered it at the 2009 Edinburgh fringe festival. Thanks to its success there with critics and audiences alike, the show is now heading out on tour.

For further information or to book tickets, priced 10/8, contact the Island Arts Centre Box Office on 9250 9254.