By Jonathan Copsey / STAFF

Only in a play could dozens of catholic nuns dying of food poisoning be considered the basis for a comedy. This was the basis for Nunsense, the latest performance at the Act 1 Theater in Alpharetta.

The sisters of Mount St. Helen’s Nunnery of Hoboken, NJ are faced with the sudden deaths of most of their fellow Daughters of God due to a bad batch of Sister Julia Child’s soup. To pay for the burials, funds need to be raised – so a show is put on. That’s what Nunsense is – a play about nuns performing a play to pay for the funerals of their sisters who are currently in the fridge.

“We last did it 11 years ago,” said director Lisa Matchen, who had been the music director and choreographer for that show and has since directed and performed in dozens of performances. “The cast was wonderful, they were so easy [to work with]. They just picked up the music and the dance steps so quickly. It was just fun.”

And it looked like the actresses on stage were truly having fun. From playing with the audience and dancing and prancing (nuns doing the can-can?), the five women never faltered in their humor, which is mostly Catholic-oriented puns. “Habit Humor” is the term given during several of the song routines.

Between a ballerina nun, actress nun, streetwise nun, amnesiac nun and the authoritarian mother superior, the performance has plenty of material to work with for gags. With the nuns’ more personal aspirations (like becoming the world’s first nun ballerina) held in check by the Mother Mary Regina, the plot moves between habit gags to heartfelt songs of the sacrifice needed to join the nunnery. 

Act 1 Theater is housed in the Alpharetta Presbyterian Church and has been decorated numerous times for their performances by Atlanta’s theater community.

“Nunsense” runs until August 8. The next performance for the Act 1 Theater will be “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.” For more information on that or Nunsense, visit www.act1theater.com or call 770-663-8989.