Transported back in time to her days in an all-girls Surrey boarding school, Nicola Spencer immediately felt the need to sit up straight and pull up her socks as she sat through this “fearfully spiffy” adaptation of Daisy Pulls it Off...
OUR VERDICT
Teddington Theatre Club has come up trumps with this fun and energetic revival of Denise Deegan’s award-winning parody of life in a girls’ boarding school in the twenties. Daisy Meredith is the impoverished elementary (state) school pupil who wins the first-ever scholarship to the prestigious Grangewood School, where she soon demonstrates that she is not just awfully brainy, but excels in the areas of music and sport too.
Unfortunately, this does not endear her to a number of the existing pupils who fear that her arrival will lower the tone of this highly renowned school and open the floodgates to the arrival of more of her kind. As a result, Daisy faces bullying, prejudice and social injustice and is framed as a cheat and a sneak by her snobbish classmate, Sybil. Despite these obstacles, she manages to save the school, the hockey county finals and the lives of two classmates, armed only with a jolly spirit, a set of pigtails and a big pair of gym knickers.
Teddington Theatre Group is a non-professional theatrical company who perform roughly ten productions a year. The authentic set design for this production was comparable to any I have seen in a ‘professional’ theatre – the oak-panelled assembly hall with its creaky stairs and gilt-framed oil portraits, immediately took me back to the many school assemblies I have attended and a valiant attempt to transform the same stage into a clifftop, with the use of smoke and some blustery sound effects, worked.
It was a lovely touch that a schoolgirl violinist was practising on stage as we were shown to our seats by the cast, in character as schoolgirls, mistresses and matron. It genuinely invoked in me a need to remain silent and improve my deportment, whilst cleverly setting the scene for the story ahead.
Daisy is a difficult character to play as she is so frightfully over-the-top and earnest that you actually have sympathy with some of the girls who want to get rid of her. In fact at one point, her best friend Trixie comments, “Daisy, I do wish you’d slack off” and I couldn’t help but agree.
Having said that, Ellie Greenwood did a good job of keeping the audience on her side just when she was becoming a little too much of a “frightful muff”. I have not been able to find out the age of the brilliant Lara Parker, who plays Trixie, but I hope she will not mind me saying that she cannot be of school age, and yet her dimpled, smiley face made her convincing as a schoolgirl, and very likeable - I would happily have shared my tuck box with her at break time.
Another standout actor was Juliette Sexton, playing the constantly snacking, lisping sidekick Monica, to Lily Tomlinson’s snooty Sybil, but with whom you most certainly would not have shared your tuck. It was a well-cast production and I was very impressed by the standard of acting and singing.
The script for Daisy Pulls It Off feels a little dated and the plot is ludicrous, but if you can take all that with a pinch of salt (or glug of cod liver oil) this is an entertaining evening’s romp, performed by a talented local group of actors.
Daisy Pulls it Off, Hampton Hill Theatre from September 24th to October 4th. Book here.
Dates & Times:
- Tue 1 Oct: 7.45pm
- Wed 2 Oct: 7.45pm
- Thu 3 Oct: 7.45pm
- Fri 4 Oct: 7.45pm
