Greater Tuna

One of the USA's most performed plays, Greater Tuna is intended for performance by just two male actors, much of its charm residing in the stars' efforts to portray over 20 characters of differing age and gender. Kansas City-based St. Teresa's Academy has tampered with the formula, employing a significantly larger cast of teenage girls to play a few roles each. In theatre, young people are, of course, charming by default.

Disguised in mullet wigs and adopting hammy Texan accents, the girls do a sterling job of mocking their socially conservative countrymen, but fail to convey any real sense of affection for their targets. As a result, there is something slightly unpleasant about this performance, which at times feels perilously close to watching aspiring dramatists sneer at those less privileged, educated and cosmopolitan. When a pair of actors breathlessly rush through the play, the two-dimensional nature of its characters can be more easily explained and forgiven.

This is not to say that the cast are at fault in themselves. Their comic timing is well-honed while their mannerisms are consistently true to life. Equally impressive is the script, which has stood the test of time remarkably well. Essentially a series of interlinking vignettes, each depicting an aspect of life in Tuna, supposedly the third smallest town in Texas, the play concludes that the only way to overcome such a conservative environment is simply to leave. It suggests that some attitudes will never change and, in the 30 years since the play was written, it's evident that they haven't.