This year’s Junior Play was a foolish thing. An adaptation by Ms Allen of three of Italo Calvino’s Italian Folktales and an original devised piece, The Four Fools plumbed the depths and scaled the delightful heights of human folly.

The evening started with the tale of the Simple Fool. This hilarious escapade, in which Harry McGregor (and Eithne Brennan on Friday), as foolish as he is simple, is repeatedly conned by Sam Kan and Lizzie Carter until the penny drops and right prevails. Directed by Miss Varley, the play exploited to great comic effect the carefully crafted appearance of naivety in its production and performances to underline the theme of the story. 

In ‘The Smart Fool’, the deliciously scheming Ella Weston gets herself married to the mindlessly ruthless king, Louis Hogan, but finds it impossible to control his excesses, until both finally admit they are not as smart as they thought they were. The complexities of the play’s ideas were clearly and simply handled by Upper Sixth directors Joanna Robottom and Emily Williams, ably assisted by Mr Bell. 

After the interval we were introduced to the Vain Fool, in a piece devised by the cast and directed by Ms Allen, in which a host of thinly disguised celebrities (George W. Mush, Jennifer Amplesome...) attend a party given by wealthy socialite Marcus Moneyman, captured to a ‘t’ – or should that be an ‘m’? - by Matt Maginnis, in honour of a visiting Indian prince (Sachin Kripalani) with an eye for the ladies. The ensuing farce of mistaken identity neatly demonstrated the moral of this gentle satire on human vanity. 

The evening was wrapped up in some style by the Lazy Fool, with Frankie Hester, a scream as the mother of Sophia Spencer, convincing the immensely wealthy Richie Goldwater, played by Eric Burke-Arevalo in a very natty suit, that her girl is the one for him. As a test he leaves her to sew hundreds of shirts, but all she can do is stuff her face and rely on the good offices of a couple of old bats (Sam Guinness, Sid Arthur and Rufus Knight) to handle the shirt-making. Confusion abounds, threatening the happy union, but in the end, of course, all is well. Once again, Ms Allen was at the helm, ensuring a polished production, lovely ensemble playing and plenty of hilarious, inventive touches. 

This was a great evening’s entertainment, and all the very many people involved, off stage and on, deserve the highest praise and lavish thanks for keeping us so happily amused and exposing so charmingly the folly that is an inherent part of us all.

(Photographs by Ian Trayner - www.photographer-in-surrey.net)