Battle of the 1980s schoolgirls is comic nostalgia with heart

Holy Mary

Pavilion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire; on tour

Rating:***

‘Holy Mary, Holy Mary. Holes in her knickers cos her bum is hairy.” Oh children can be cruel, indeed, as young Mary, the subject of this original taunt, discovers, when her arch-enemy, Majella, turns her wicked rhyming wit upon her. However, as Eoin Colfer illustrates in this comedy based upon Catholic communion rites, bad behaviour is usually a symptom of something else.

Colfer, who ...