All the Hours

ALL THE HOURS is a play in the form of a monologue by a nun with a Greek chorus of four psalm-chanting nuns, ending with a brief passage of dialogue. The scene is a convent cell over a single day sometime towards the end of the 20th century. 'The Liturgy of the Hours', which regulates the life of a Cistercian abbey gives the play its structure. The nun, who has been many years in the abbey, has been confined to her cell for a serious breach of The Rule. The drama unfolds in pared back, mischievous and emotive language in a profound examination of the fragility of religious belief, the difficulties of grafting the supernatural onto the natural, and the very idea of a religious vocation. William Lyons' autobiographical memoir about his onetime intimate relationship with a religious way of life serves as the introduction to the play.