The show must go on. That's been the code of entertainers all over the globe since the earliest days of showbiz.

Having read the recent tabloids' accolades on the two part drama played out on BBC's EastEnders between Zoe and Kat and their acclaimed performances, I can only say that what I witnessed at the Warehouse Theatre, Croydon, last week was true high drama.

On stage, live, tangible, emotive, funny, gut-wrenchingly sad, Ay Carmela's two actors gave a magnificent performance.

Set in the Spanish Civil War in Belchite, Spain, Paulino (Gerry Mulgrew) and Carmela (Catalina Botello) are a pair of cabaret artistes forced to perform for Franco's troops.

We know from the start that Carmela is dead, yet her demise is gradually revealed amid flashbacks and what may well have been Paulino's dreams or should that be nightmares.

Mulgrew, looking like a young George Cole, has the task of making Paulino comic yet fearful, loving yet abrasive, and pathetic when his life has life has gone on and his partner has perished.

The fiesty Carmela, flits between worlds, a lost soul one minute and the fierce patriot the next.

Their dialogue has so much humour that the underlying bond of this tragic couple is almost hidden.

As the nagging and recriminations go on you know that they were once desperately in love.

A great double act on and off stage, but now Carmela can't settle in the after life and Paulino has no life after Carmela.

War is ugly, it's brutality is laid bare in this play by Jose Sanchis Sinisterra, and the tension from Mulgrew and Botello spread like a choking mist over us.

I laughed, I cried and felt emotionally drained as I applauded this timely, dark comedy.

Bravo to all concerned in this terrific production. Now that's what I call drama!

October 25, 2001 10:30