Pirates of the Crabby Bean, Queen Katherine School, Kendal

There wasn't a straight face in the audience on the final night of Queen Katherine School's swashbuckling performance of Pirates of the Crabby Bean.

Directed, and also written, by talented Jonathan Linaker and Jarrod Collings, the cutlass sharp script tells the story of feeble Colin and his sparky wife Vera, who yearns for adventure, accidentally travelling back in time to an 18th Century Pirate treasure saga complete with lost maps, rivalry, bloodshed, riddles and love interest. All in fantastic pirate lingo with bucketfuls of hilarious delinquent silliness alongside engaging plot and characters performed with real skill and commitment by 11-14 year old actors.

Peak moments among many included the 'claws n' draws' lobsters-down-the-pants torture of Captain Jeopardy (played brilliantly by Jonah 'shiver-mi-timbers' Aldridge), Vera's tongue-in-cheek recital of Abba's Fernando song as passionate love poem (played by talented Rowan Baker-Ellwood), Thomas and Gilbert, the cheeky duo of pirates cum novice monks played with perfect comic timing by Libby Kay and Harry Bates, and the seductive transformation of cabin boy Jack Sparrow into flaxen haired maiden Jacqueline Marrow by Iona Nelson-Yeats. The audience response was electric.

The entire cast was exceptionally strong and Queen Katherine School should be incredibly proud of their performance.

Lucy Nelson