DAISY PULLS IT OFF. To 23 August.

Tour.

DAISY PULLS IT OFF
by Denise Deegan.

Tour to 23 August 2008.
Runs 2hr 35min One interval.
Review: Timothy Ramsden 24 May at Yvonne Arnaud Theatre Guildford.

A reminder how well Denise brings it off.
Whether the aim is to copy or to mock - to pastiche or parody – being fully successful means giving the impression you could produce a piece at least as good as the original. That’s what distinguishes Denise Deegan’s 1983 revisiting of the girls’ school stories associated with the novels of Angela Brazil.

Traditional values at their best, moral edification as well as entertainment, flowed from the pages of such books in the first half of the 20th-century. Deegan sets her play in 1927 and introduces an element of social radicalism as private Grangewood School for Girls accepts its first scholarship girl, Daisy Meredith.

Characters are calibrated by their willingness to accept and befriend this paragon from beyond the gates of privilege. It’s a neat comment on English society that intelligence should be regarded by such as snobbish Sybil Burlington as no criterion for acceptability in a school.

Even among her teachers Daisy’s supposed misdoings are all-too-believable in minds distrustful of the lower classes. Deengan shows how such fiction could have it both ways. The play is firmly on Daisy’s side, before eventually dragging her by the plot’s coat-tails into the social pale.

For all the fun, such as people announcing their names with thumbnail, third-person character sketches, Deegan treats her characters with respect as the types they are. She allows for plenty of humour, in what’s said and in visual opportunities. Yet she also respects the story; its adventures have a genuine narrative hold – the cliffhanger rescue is no less convincing for collapsing into a laugh.

There are aspects of Ian Dickens’ revival with which to argue. The modern projections hardly fit with the piece being a school play enacted for parents in 1927, and the voiceover narrative speeches, though not generally harmful, deprive us of the opening contrast of Daisy’s one-parent home. Also, some Latin pronunciation’s doubtful.

Still, there’s a phalanx of spirited performances, keeping shy of caricature, around Carly Hillman’s Daisy. A slight figure among the traditional Grangewood girls, Hillman’s Daisy shows the pluck, resilience and moments of raw misery that help her heroine drive the play.

Miss Gibson: Kim Hartman.
Mr Scoblowski: Ben Roberts.
Miss Granvilile: Katie Evans.
Daisy Meredith: Carly Hillman.
Sybil Burlington: Emily Bowker.
Belinda Mathieson: Polly Smith.
Clare Beaumont: Jane Dowden.
Alice Fitzpatrick: Nicola Weeks.
Trixie Martin: Julia Mallam.
Monica Smithers: Eloise Irving.
Dora Johnstone: Cassandra Rowen.
Winnie Irtving: Sophie Holden.
Mr Thompson: Jared Morgan.

Director: Ian Dickens.
Designer: Alan Miller Bunford.
Lighting: David North.
Costume: Carole Shaw.

2008-05-27 09:37:00