Daisy Pulls It Off

Daisy Pulls It Off is a comedy play by Denise Deegan which premiered at the Nuffield Theatre, Southampton in 1983. It is a parody of the wholesome “jolly hockey sticks” adventure stories about life in girls’ boarding schools in the 1920s. With its preponderance of female characters, it is an ideal play for any group with a lot of women in its membership, and any fan of St Trinians or the works of Enid Blyton or Angela Brazil will love it.

Hayley Wilson shone throughout as the title character, Daisy Meredith – the poor scholarship girl from a humble background who is launched into a world where staff and girls alike resent her presence. Hayley had exactly the right combination of energy, innocence and determination, always ready to see the best in everyone – even her worst enemies – and a great singing voice to-boot. She was well-matched by Kaye Lee-Wright as her zany friend Trixie Martin. Kaye really inhabited her character, bringing great energy and excitement to all the japes the pair got involved with.

Samantha Spivey was superbly evil and scheming as Daisy’s arch-enemy Sybil Burlington – I really enjoyed her wonderful range of facial expressions and mannerisms. She was well matched with Jayne Green as her sidekick Monica Smithers – both typical school bullies who get their just desserts in the end. Monica’s reluctance to get involved any further as the tricks spiral out of control was well brought out.

Hilary Glanville was ideal as Clare Beaumont, the head girl. Every inch the girl that everyone looks up to and aspires to be like. Her confidante, Alice Fitzpatrick, was also well played by Nadine Darnley De Salis – much more robust and down-to-earth.

The master stroke by Director Ian Clark was the casting of Mark De Salis as the headmistress. With a tight tweed skirt and sensible shoes he reminded me so much of one of the sterner (female) teachers at my junior school! Amongst the smaller roles, Ryan Richards was very convincing as the mysterious Russian Mr Scoblowski, maintaining his accent well - although we never did discover why his character was searching for the treasure. Sophie Dulake played a very sparky Belinda Mathieson with great confidence and Jenni Van Wijk was a beautifully dizzy and stylish French mademoiselle (as well as being one of the girls).

As always with this group, the standard of singing in the assembly sequences (nicely accompanied by Nick Cole) was first rate but although the play flowed well, with scene changes taking place efficiently behind the action, it could have done with a little more pace at times, especially where some stumbles with words slowed it down.

Costumes were excellent and the basic set worked well on the small stage, with realistic props and furniture. The school desks and the suitcases that became seats on the train (on loan from Dynamo Youth Theatre) were particularly realistic. The group made good use of some very atmospheric publicity photos, both on social media and in the single sheet programme, which was cleverly laid out as a school newsletter.

What a jolly good romp this was, and a thoroughly enjoyable evening’s entertainment – jubilate!

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