Daisy I can do without: Daisy Pulls It Off at Park Theatre
Daisy Pulls It Off
Go People and Glass Half Full Productions
Park Theatre
Circle B22, £20
12 December 2017
Park Theatre page
I eschewed habitual Scrooginess to attend this child-friendly Christmas romp, not from any change of heart but in celebration of a talented friend who is a founding member of the youthful theatre company Go People. Their productions so far have been imaginative, inventive and vivacious, and so Daisy Pulls It Off proved, in some independence of the source material.
My familiarity with Daisy Pulls It Off extended no further than the title, and I’m a little disappointed that greater intimacy reveals a heavy-handed satire with pacing problems. What is the point of Daisy Pulls It Off? I know, to have a jolly topping time of it, but when the real deal exists in such plenteousness I wonder at the need of a send-up practically indistinguishable from its target. Maybe it’s an 80s thing, or maybe I just secretly snuck in my Scrooginess after all.
The play does, however, yield up two engaging set pieces (though why are they both in the second half?) that here are a gift to the imaginations of director Paulette Randall and her cast. My grumpy heart sank as I realized we were approaching a staged hockey match and then again on the lead-up to a climactic chairs-set cliff-edge scene, but in both I was quickly uplifted by irresistibly giddy, joyous silliness. At these points, unencumbered by the plot’s excessive details, the production achieved a momentum of loveable jollity that carried through to the finale.
The production’s fuel is its cast’s energy, and the credible bonhomie that exists between them. The play demands caricatures, but each performer found imaginative and endearing means of characterization, the delight of which was imperilled only by the plot’s repetitiveness. Pauline McLynn came close to stealing the show with her effervescently throaty sidekick Trixie and I also have a soft spot for Clare Perkins’s deep-voiced, emphatic presence, as both bully and long-lost Welsh father. But this is a collective effort, excellently framed by Libby Watson’s witty set design.
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