The gym-slipped world of schoolgirl "pashes" and clipped vowels is here re-created with a fiendish dedication to the ridiculous. Iain Ormsby-Knox directs and choreographs with the eye of a demented Busby Berkeley, and the 13-strong cast performs with a commitment that would gratify any "hice mistress". The intense merriment and plentiful doubles entendres throw into relief the stifling class-consciousness and xenophobia of the Thirties, and there is an unexpected and chilling ending. Accomplished, entertaining and as camp as a bottle of coffee-and-chicory essence.
Written for The Independent.
Copyright © Ian Shuttleworth; all rights reserved.
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