The Nativity
Thank god this is back. I haven’t seen any mischief productions for over a year and I miss the hell out of this cast. They are geniuses and geniuses they return to us for a Christmas special. The show starts with the arch angel Gabrielle making an accidental early entrance. The props are so simple yet effective with chopping off josephs beard because he got caught. Subtly in-between there are ads from the tv sponsor. Gabrielle enters after falling out of the sky as he was only held up by TAPE! Gabrielle is an absolute mess and quite a terrifying angel and got locked out of heaven to try and climb a rope to ascend leaving his wings behind.
The set is designed like a book so every change of scene folds out onto itself which is very clever. Poor Mary can’t ever get on the donkey. The background changes from desert to pictures of desserts to be continued with an argument on the back drop. All the sheep were decapitated with the shepherds but before they can get started the fire alarm goes off which I have experienced for real with this production. Chaos finishes with the return of the angel arriving on a ladder. The cleverness of the lines getting mixed up with having an argument over a halo and hearing hello with props getting miss placed and muddled which has perfect timing turning into hiya from higher. The poor angel nearly dies again with arguments on more props leaving the angel hanging off the star and getting crushed in the set.
King Herald enters the set but on a spinning top where he can barely deliver his lines and I fear he will throw up on the set. The three men enter with no trousers but manage to pull it off. Poor king Herald loses his outfit on the turn table until he is completely nude except a weird beard which was genius. He has to then turn the set-in order to get out and not show anything crude on the BBC but thankfully it zooms out for that. They were really pushing the line for that one! Too funny. Mary and Joseph get to Bethlehem with a two headed donkey.
All the cast become the choir boys. I feared for the fire on the piano. But suddenly the music gets mixed up and they have to keep changing the song which just shows the skills of Chris bean playing the piano. The firs were nothing to be feared…. yet I hope. The stupid wise man shepherd answers all the doors to get the lines mixed up and gets him abused behind the set by Chris. Oh gosh this part is priceless I can’t emphasise how funny this part is. They have found the best part!
Now comes the donkey with 2 arses to carry them up to the stable. The three wise men arrive but they play the same characters as the shepherds so there are scary cardboard cut-outs of the wrong costumes. A full mix up ends up with nine wise men attending the birth. They start to sing silent night with the second fire alarm drill going off increasing their volume to try and get over the sound. Oh, crap now the piano goes on fire, how did I guess that would happen? They have to keep singing despite the chaos going on all around such as fighting fire with fire and destroying the piano and he untimely sound of the fire alarm.
Gabrielle arrives in the finale on a forklift with a wing full of fire words which go off destroying the entire set. They continue the scene lying down being shot from above which really words until they have to try and walk and do the weirdest dance I have ever seen. They finish off the scene with the whole cast getting crushed by the remainder of the set. Another spectacular production by Cornley drama society. I love this show and I think it is what we need to lift our spirits and break the time until we get out of this next disaster.
These guys are absolute GENIUSES!
theloneswift.com 
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