Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Richard Bremner, Calum Callaghan, Sean Campion, Clare Cathcart, Oliver Coopersmith, Kate Lock, Molly Logan, Amy Morgan, Katherine Rose Morley, Cecilia Noble.

If you are bad, apparently as the saying perhaps misleadingly suggests, you will go to Hell. However if you are good, if you are very good and eat everything set before you and say your prayers and remember to confess your sins, you might just be fortunate enough to see one of the best comedies likely to hit Liverpool this year, the beautifully irreverent, the supremely funny Once A Catholic.

First performed at the Royal Court in Liverpool in 1979, Once A Catholic comes back full circle and once more places itself into the hearts of theatre goers in the area as The Tricycle Theatre, Kathy Burke and a collection of nuns so set in their religious fervor they make the great comedian Dave Allen’s assertion that they are the Gestapo in drag seem wonderfully astute.

In a play that sneaks a look into a world that many might not understand but who will certainly get every nuance and raised eyebrow thrown their way by a cast that is as near to perfection as you could possibly hope for, the performances are as rich and luxuriant as weekend trip to the Vatican City with all expenses paid. In particular the sublime Cecilia Noble as Mother Peter who cast a very long glistening light over the production and was joined by Sean Campion as Father Mullarkey and Molly Logan. This young lady has all the hall marks of someone who has learned from the very best and in Kathy Burke you don’t come much better! Molly Logan bathed herself in the spotlight glare and where some might wilt under the pressure of the exquisite lines penned by the superb Mary J. O’Malley, the respectful impertinence in which the play draws its pleasure from, Ms. Logan was a true star; there really should be big things ahead for this young actor. With Kathy Burke behind her, that seems not just likely but a forgone conclusion.

That’s not to say that the two other young actors playing the disinterested school girls, Mary McGinty and Mary Gallagher, portrayed by the equally impressive Amy Morgan and Katherine Rose Morley, were nothing but exciting in their roles as they certainly built up the comedic tension that arose from the setting of 1950s Post-War London. Amy Morgan certainly has one of the finest lines throughout the whole play, and whilst it may shock some, to hear it delivered with such brutal venom and superb honesty is enough to make you laugh so hard that in your mind the tables are turned. This is not a young woman who is going to take the sarcastic and barbed vile references, the punishments meted out any more; you certainly can’t help but love her for having the guts to deliver such a line in such a great way.

Once A Catholic, never anything short of artistic brilliance, Kathy Burke and the entire team deliver a play of heavenly delight.

Ian D. Hall