Kate Johnston, Director-Dramaturg
The Universe Over 60 | Toronto, ON
Lisa Randall has enough experience with music and theatre to know when a groaner deserves its moment. When I heard, “How do you make holy water?” followed by the punchline, “You boil the hell out of it!” I laughed out loud. And once she gets into character for her one-woman act, Sister Sophia Kicks the Habit, Randall offers plenty to think about. Whether you’re there to confess your sins or simply wonder why she wants to change, the message is clear. This show packs a lot of meaning into its 55-minute runtime and also makes you wonder whether God ever listens.
Randall trained as an actor at Vancouver’s Studio 58 and has performed in children’s theatre, play-development workshops and modern dance. She was also a singer and lyricist with Against the Grain and Freedom Rains, recording two albums. That range serves her well in this one-woman production, which mixes physical comedy, audience interaction and ragtime-era music with gospel and other styles.
As a playwright, Randall previously found Fringe success with The Sorauren Book Club. It won a Patron’s Pick Award at the 2022 Toronto Fringe before travelling to the Orlando Fringe in 2023. She also appeared in the sold-out 2024 Toronto Fringe production of Desperate Measures. Her short play Back to the Garden was presented by SAWITRI Theatre and Process Theatre in 2026. And for Fringe, what she writes is more than about watching a nun confess her sins. She has grievances too.
Inspired in part by two of Randall’s aunts who became Catholic nuns, it asks what women who took on certain vows if allowed to speak freely. Surely, living a cloistered life governed by the patriarchy must feel claustrophobic. Those moments gave me a shudder or two!
The story picks up after the death of Sophia’s closest friend, Sister Beatrice, which sends her into a crisis of faith. I never once thought this would become a ghost story, but some moments suggest other presences. The Holy Ghost is one thing, but honestly, that’s not what I’m talking about. Instead, a certain past bothers this nun.
Those phantom patrols of male authority circle Sophia, and I’m not surprised she’s trying to hide from them. Their presence gives the production an edge I liked, since it plays into my interest in occult lore, something most Catholics refuse to acknowledge. The sound of those disembodied footsteps often suggests a residual haunting, and under Kate Johnston’s direction, they become something more. Their timing suggests more than history caught in a loop. They evoke centuries of patriarchal pride closing in around Sophia.
But when she looks back at centuries of Catholic history, its abuses and how indulgences became what she treats as “forgiveness packages,” if you don’t know, you don’t know. If you do, even ethical historians may want to ask why. It doesn’t make sense when you examine the Bible under a microscopic lens.
Although the production mostly focuses on how the Catholic Church has treated women, I wouldn’t call it a satire. Its emotional foundation is too sincere for that label. Director-dramaturg Kate Johnston deserves considerable credit for maintaining that balance, allowing the vaudeville comedy and Catholic criticism to sharpen, rather than undercut, Sophia’s lament. When I asked Randall how she would describe the show afterwards, she placed it somewhere between what I consider “a lament” and her own description, “Sister Sophia gets into the sacramental wine and then everything starts to spill…”
Through songs, physical routines and an unapologetic collection of puns, she confronts God and wonders whether anyone has been listening. If absolution could once be treated as a transaction, what else has religious authority attempted to control? When she questions the institution she devoted most of her life to, you’re either rooting for her or not. Randall packages these questions inside hilarious, old-fashioned entertainment.
The vaudeville act and ragtime-era music keep the evening playful without stripping away its anger. Sophia can tell a corny joke one moment and question generations of authority seconds later. More importantly, her liberation doesn’t require her to reject spirituality altogether. She isn’t trading faith for disbelief. She recognises that no institution owns the only road to salvation.
That idea reflects my own philosophy. Authority figures may present themselves as righteous, but righteousness doesn’t automatically make them right. Much like the monks encountered by heroes in Chinese animated fantasies, they may understand one route towards enlightenment without recognising the others. In those stories, the monks tend to reject the fantastical and the monsters, but the protagonists don’t necessarily reject their own connection with the divine. Everyone should be treated as equals.
Since Sophia doesn’t abandon the Way, all she really says is, “This is my life, and it’s nun of your business how I want to live it!”
5 Stars out of 5
Sister Sophia Kicks the Habit
Remaining and Upcoming Shows
Sept 1st and 2nd
Gabriola Theatre Centre1475 Peterson Rd, Gabriola, BC
Sept 4 to 6
Victoria Fringe Festival 2026
VCM Wood Hall (Fringe Venue 2)
Victoria Fringe 2026
Victoria, BC