Pentecost, Shoreditch Church, East London, review St Leonard's Church in Shoreditch has an intriguing history. It has long been associated with theatre, and is the final resting place of some of the leading Elizabethan actors - including James and Richard Burbage. Now famous for being the place where BBC TV series Rev is filmed, the church is right by one of the trendiest areas in East London and over the years has been rebuilt several times. After renovations in the early nineties finished, there wasn't money left to 'buy paint', according to information in the programme notes. Walking into it, therefore, is quite a strange experience. The church is a mixture of old and new, grand and shabby. It is a painted and repainted canvas and as such, is a perfect home for David Edgar's superb play about language, people, art and culture. Charm Offensive's production has us sitting in the pews of the church. There's rubble at the foot of the stage and a wall erected in front of the back wall and window covered by a huge communist-style poster which is pasted on top of an artistic marvel. Gabriella, played by Pinar Ogun, an art curator who has tracked down an unknown, and, until now, hidden fresco in this church in a remote area of her country which she hopes is the inspiration for Giotto's work The Lamentation of Christ. As the play continues, so does the debate - on interpretation, language, and the effect cultural discoveries have on defining a nation. This is an unnamed post-communist Eastern European country, slowly recovering and forging its identity. From the beginning, Edgar has fun exploring the complexities of language. Gabriella and art historian Oliver Davenport - played by Jonathan Sidgwick - playfully experiment with colloquialisms - "hunky dory" - and how words can sound the same but differ in meaning: the village they are in had the historic name of Clop - which, as Sidgwick points out, in his language is similar to clap (i.e the clap) and clop (the noise a horse's hoof makes). While the place itself brings a lot to the production, the church's acoustics are occasionally an obstruction and often the intricacies of Edgar's arguments are lost in the battle to hear all the lines. The leads are generally strong, with convincing performances from Ogun, Sidgwick and Ben Warwick as an American art historian, but the rest of the company struggle at times with relaying the nuances of this richly enjoyable script.