The Public Reviews

Eastern Angles always offer up something slightly different for festive fare and instead of traditional panto provides something irreverent and manic. This year in The Mystery of St.Finnigan's Elbow the company has excelled in the comedy stakes and you'll be hard pushed to find any other show that manages to cram in more laughs per minute.

A lampooning of the St Trinian's films, all is fair game for Pat Whymark and Julian Harries and while religious mockery seems in vogue at the moment with shows such as The Book of Mormon, the send up of Roman Catholic education is done with such a loving touch that it's impossible to take offence.

All is not well at St.Finnigan's school for girls. There's something slightly at odds with Reverend Mother and her staff of nuns, more than one of whom seems to have a hint of five o'clock shadow.  As if lessons by Sister John Lewis and Sister Gordon Ramsay weren't enough for the students to contend with, school bully Lydia Bumolé (it's pronounced Bu-mo-lay) and her gang of ruftytuftyties take great pleasure in embedding objects in fellow pupils heads if they dare touch Lydia's Mr Smudgey.  Add in a good old-fashioned Famous Five-esque adventure story and term time at the convent school is going to be anything but straightforward.

What transends this manic plot and turns the ridiculous into the sublime is the total dedication of the company who, under Harries and Whymark's direction, play the piece with full-on conviction allowing the absurdity to come to the fore.

Francesca Gosling acts as our guide to this madcap romp, narrating the piece through the pen pal letters of 15¾ years old Alice Trumpington - a new student at St Finnigan's alongside her twin sister Lulu (Alice Mottram, who also gives us her wonderfully named nun, Sister Usain Bolt). When Alice falls for gardener Billy Buttons (Samuel Martin doubling among others as a stubbly Sister Judith) his lowly status looks a bar to love but like many at the school Billy has a secret.

Joe Leat has missed his vocation and should he ever wish to give up the stage would make the perfect nun. His Reverend Mother, the softly spoken Irish matriarch with a somewhat moveable bosom, is disturbingly believable. Leat though, like the rest of the company, plays multiple roles and great comic potential is had with the wild excuses why two characters played by the same actor can't appear onstage at the same time.

While Reverend Mother may think she runs the school Lydia Bumolé has different ideas and Eastern Angles regular Greg Wagland milks every inch of malice from the overtly manly schoolgirl.

Eastern Angles' home base at the Sir John Mills Theatre may not have the most expansive stage but the festive shows make a feature of this instead of a challenge and this year designer Richard Evans has gone to town providing plenty of visual surprises that delight the audience.

For sheer festive fun The Mystery of St Finnigan's Elbow is hard to beat but then this is a show that has the potential of a life far beyond the Christmas season. Go along, prepare to become a boarding school girl for the night, ensure your skirt is the regulation length and avoid the bullies of Bumolé's gang. They say school days are the best days of your life but this return back to the absurd classroom of St Finnigan's could come a close second.

Glen Pearce