Child's Play

Atrocious nonsense set in a Catholic boarding school for boys where melodramatic goings-on suggest that the devil lurks in the person of jolly Joe Dobbs, popular English master and probably closet queen (Preston, looking uncomfortable in a role originally slated for Marlon Brando). With Robert Marasco's play creaking at every joint, not even Mason's carefully tortured performance (he's the master the boys all love to hate, nursing a mum dying of cancer and a drawerful of girlie magazines) can rouse much interest.