Blood Beast Horror, Evening Star

BARKING MAD… AND QUITE BRILLIANT

Thank goodness this year's Eastern Angles Christmas production is about werewolves – because the entire show is barking mad.

Utterly, brilliantly and hilariously barking mad.

The inner workings of the mind of writer Julian Harries must be something the rest of us can only wonder at, because how he is able to keep writing these fantastic alternative-to-panto masterpieces is a mystery.

The latest lunacy to emerge from the pen of Harries is Mystery of the Blood Beast Horror of Wolfbane Manor Mystery,which opened last night at the Sir John Mills Theatre in Ipswich.

When newly-qualified vet Percy Tadworth takes a job in the Victorian town of Gippeswick, he is soon befriended by the lord of the manor, Wildwood, who gives him board and lodgings in return for the care of his animals.

But all is not what it seems with Wildwood and Percy ultimately discovers there is an ulterior motive.

Wildwood is afflicted with a curse passed down through the generations of his family that sees all the men turn into werewolves every full moon once they turn 40.

Aided and abetted by a talking cat – no, really – and his unsuspecting owner, Percy must travel to darkest Billericaystan (presumably via the A12) to find the only known cure.

The closest this production gets to anything like pantomime is with the appearance of a comedy cow and some booing at the evil witch, Mrs Drascombe.

We might be led to believe that when it comes to Christmas theatre there is nothing like a dame, but this superbly written and acted production proves otherwise.

The cast of five worked like crazy, won over the audience in minutes and kept us all roaring with laughter every moment – except when we were being asked to howl or bark.

It can sometimes feel like a rare treat to see a cast really working as a team but these five actors really do and it certainly pays off, there are no stars or divas here.

The Sir John Mills Theatre is certainly not a palatial venue and Eastern Angles have none of the glitz or glamour of bigger theatres, but what they do have is imagination, talent, bravery and perfect comic timing,,, and they have all of that in bucket-loads

Helen Johns