THE Regal Tenbury presents Triona Adams in Nun the Wiser, a hilarious account of her year in a convent.

Many young girls from Catholic families dream of becoming nuns, but usually life intervenes and the dream is replaced by the realities of career and family.

For Triona, the dream didn’t completely fade, and at the age of 26 she gave up her job as a theatrical agent, and swapped premieres for prayers to became a nun, only to decide after 12 months that it wasn’t the life for her.

BBC Radio 4 commissioned a play about Triona’s time as a nun – The Lemon Squeezer, which she has since developed as a solo performance.

Success at the Edinburgh Fringe ensured an extended life for the show, which arrives at The Regal on Saturday, March 2.

“In the films it’s all soft light falling through stained glass, the sharp, clean scent of wood polish mingling with the heady aroma of cut roses as a willowy nun, habited in flowing black, glides graciously down the cloister to prayer. Maybe my sisters had never seen the films but the reality was much more zimmer frames, old lino and spaghetti hoops.

“‘Being a nun is not romantic,’ said my officer class reverend mother, practically twirling her moustache, ‘It’s no good thinking you’re going to be the next Bernadette, it’s hard enough just to get through the day.’ “What with living with 12 women aged 52 to 101, getting up at 5.30am, communal prayer seven times a day, cleaning, cooking, gardening, Latin and no going beyond the gate for so much as a frappacino, I soon gave up trying to be a saint and concentrated on not hitting Sister Mary Brian over the head with a fish finger.”

Triona Adams recounts the bittersweet comic story of a modern, emancipated women trying to become a nun in a fascinating and hilarious insight into convent life To book, call the box office on 01584 811442 or online at regaltenbury.co.uk