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PoppybyPeter NicholsCast & Crew
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Cockney groom, Jack Idle wants to marry the school teacher, Sally Forth. Sally wants to marry her guardian Dick. Dick wants to marry money. His savage, sexy mother, Lady Dodo wants to hunt any man or animal rash enough to cross her sights. Queen Victoria and the Chinese Manchu dynasty fight over trade and tradition. Drama and comedy mingle as the audience is seduced to expect the pleasures of ‘pretty girls, true love, a fairy story’ and then is eventually left to ponder that neither history, life or pantomime stories necessarily work out as expected. Star of the Sea Theatre, Cnr of Collingwood Street and Iluka Avenue, Manly. PERFORMANCES – 10th July to 24th July. Evening shows at 7:30pm – Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Sunday Matinees at 3:00pm Tickets - $30 / $25. Bookings : 9439 1906 |
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Poppy at the Star of The Sea Theatre: Rollicking and riotous. Review from Sat 17th July, 2010 It’s a crafty play. Meticulously conceived with a very clear trajectory. The production makes the most of it. The set works well, steering away from the usual sombre black and scarlet. The attention to detail is great fun. The heads popping up from behind the piano. The pound notes hanging on the line. And the poppies strewn centre stage at the very end. The consistently shifting characters (those Alisons work very hard and do a great job!) fill the stage with colour and humour and movement. They move about with energy, applying their makeup behind the curtains, running through the audience and clearly enjoying themselves. Hooray for Randy (tragic!) and Cherry, the black foreign devil, Mr SFX (love that suitably intimidating reverb), Ms Pianist (sensational…should be a piano in every production!) and everyone else in between. The only let-down is the singing which at times is not as focussed as it could be. Jack Idle is a standout, drawing us all in from the beginning, even though we don’t know what to expect…ful l marks for getting such strong audience participation! A simple pleasant chappie who can’t wait to get his hands on the delectable but unobtainable Sally. She is a school marm so of course she is school marm-ish but could there be more of a softness or wistfulness to her? he seems to have a naughty glint in her eye from the start. Perhaps it shouldn’t be there…or perhaps it should? Dick W is full of hearty British vigour, striding around confidently with a somewhat bemused attitude to events unfolding. Are his motives pure? Does he really go into the opium trade with his eyes open? Is he just not ‘into’ Sally? Their relationship is strangely neutral except for a Madonna/Britney-style pash. Well, according to panto protocol, he is virtuous, so in this play he probably is not. Hmmm. Don’t know about that, but he’s having a whale of a time. Queen Vic’s transformation into Miss Fortune is a telling comment from Nichols about the monarch’s basic ridiculousness and weakness. She’s well cast and in both forms is a classic fairy tale character. Obediah has that typical British aloofness bordering on disinterest, a man thoroughly immersed in the fine pursuit of business at whatever the cost with little patience for anything else. Except the marvellous Lady Dodo. Lady D is great fun (should star in her own cabaret!). A master/mistress(?) of innuendo who carries herself with suitable aplomb and remains elegantly in character throughout. Even better, she gets all the best lines. Well done, chaps! (Wendy Lewis, playwright and theatre blogger) |
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Audience Review We really enjoyed Poppy last Friday... it was great on so many levels. Alex and I both enjoyed the double entendre / risqué humour of Lady Dodo. He’s a great actor and got the body language just right. And then even more satisfying on an intellectual level were the many parallels to be seen in the story to the current worldwide economic and geopolitical forces at work – including of course the dreaded GFC! Also, as a history buff I found the historical depth of the story really gratifying and then to have it all wrapped up with music and song made for a totally fun and gratifying package. We haven’t enjoyed ourselves so much for ages. We’re full of admiration not just for the cast and the writer but also to the director for presenting such an entertaining, amusing but still meaningful piece of theatre. (Helen Kelly) |
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| Poppy photographed by John Reeves | ||
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