Musical comedy may still not be the 'coolest' form of comedy despite their best protestations, but the whimsical lyrical musings of Flo and Joan were certainly accomplished enough to fill the Wyvern with laughs.

The 'Before The Screaming Starts' show, rescheduled due to the pandemic, was one of the first ones to grace the Wyvern's stage in over a year and a half this past weekend. So it's perhaps rather apt it started with a song about drawing false confidence from trival things. 

With Covid still here and people still relunctant to go back to how things were, Flo and Joan didn't quite sell out the whole theatre, but came closed. Not that the empty seats were noticable as a quick deadpan song about people not believeing the duo were real-life sisters and a timelier unhinged song about mothers who refuse to vaccinate their kids drew enough laughter to more than make up for it. 

For many in the audience, this was the first show they had seen since the lockdown began and the subsequent atmosphere of people slowly relaxing into it and having a good time was a joy, even if Flo and Joan's sometimes awkard between-song banter sometimes stifled the momentum a little. 

The audience was quickly treated to all of the things the off-kilter feminist duo were known for, subverted expectations with a Motown-style song about loving a man who is clearly a serial killer, big ideas in the heavily exaggerated fantastical tale of waiting for a package all day and clever wordplay with a song about Albus Dumbledore and Engelbert Humperdinck getting married. 

The second half was kicked off with shameless honesty in a song about drinking too much and followed by excellent alliteration from a shanty about a lady who lived in the woods, a medley of previous songs and tongue twister fan-favourite Carol the Cracker Packer, which drew rousing participation from the audience. 

The finale featured an excellent series of recorder solos to prove musical comedy was cool but then The laughs subsided slightly in the poignant final song with the two sisters singing to their younger selves about all of the challegnes they might face and how they should look after each other. 

In the face of everything that has happened over the last two years it was the perfect send-off to a night of comedy.