When we first meet Christabel Seagrave, we know three things: it is the end of WWI, she is 3 years old, and she is a force to be reckoned with. Orphaned yet living on her family’s estate, she is mostly left to her own devices as she grows up exploring the seaside around her home, along with the books in the estate’s extensive library. An eccentric cast of characters come and go: Rosalind, her champagne-loving stepmother; Myrtle, the wealthy American “Poetess;” Taras, the Russian-expat artist; the mysterious intelligence officer, General Pennington, among others. But it is this bohemian upbringing that later prepares the intrepid Christabel to be an undercover British agent in Occupied France. The Whalebone Theatre is a coming of age story at its best: old-fashioned storytelling filled with humor, heartbreak and adventure, brimming with a wonderful cast of characters who feel so real. – Diana