Nun the Wiser is a newly written musical comedy set in a nunnery in 18th-century Italy. As musicals often take years to bring to the stage, we will begin this project as a work-in-progress workshop performance on 8 February 2026 , with the goal of putting on the full show in the future. The musical is written by Kat Carson, The Cauldron’s very own founder and artistic director.

What is a workshop performance?

As a new composition, it is vital that the material can be workshopped and improved through interaction with the public. Do the piece’s themes come across? Do they make people think about women’s roles in society? About religious freedom in relation to LGBTQIA identity? To discover and further develop this work, we will put on extracts from the full piece in front of the audience it was intended for, and ask for their participation in shaping the performance. To preface the work, there will be an introduction to the world of female composers in the 18th century and the history preceding this, given by historical performance expert and Nederlands Muziekprijs winner Elisabeth Hetherington. The audience will then experience excerpts from the full musical, which will have been rehearsed in the preceding three days. Finally, after the performance, we will have a moderated Q&A/Feedback session with the audience where they give their takeaways and feelings, and are able to ask questions of the creative team.

This is an opportunity for performers to originate a role, and perform it with direct feedback from a live audience. For the audience, it gives an opportunity to have a role in shaping a new exciting musical theatre production.

What is the musical about?

‘Nun the Wiser’ is an irreverent new musical from the mind of Kat Carson. It is a satirical look at an imagined past where Italian nuns sing gospel music and dream of fame. It focusses on the lives of seven musical nuns. On the surface, they appear devout and ordinary, but beneath that exterior lies a world of interpersonal relationships, conflicts, love, and repressed emotion. Within the convent, the only permitted form of artistic expression is composing and performing religious music.

Their lives are thrown into turmoil when the famous composer Antonio Vivaldi comes to hear their compositions. As a man, he has the power to change their lives and introduce their music to the outside world. The nuns ask Mr. Vivaldi to review their own works, but what will he make of their explicit writings about love and desire?

Drawing on her extensive work on the music of the 17th and 18th centuries, and on her experiences in an all female education system, Kat has used the genre of musical theatre to examine LGBTQIA issues and to draw a picture of womanhood that is both funny and challenging. The nuns in the story are people first and foremost, and have their own dreams, lives, and troubles. The musical explores issues of sexual identity, living within a patriarchal society, and a love of music through the absurd lens of nuns in an 18th century convent.