Daisy Pulls It Off

What a wonderful production of “Daisy Pulls It Off”. Congratulations to everyone at Leeds Arts Centre, you all certainly pulled it off splendidly. This was fast-paced and packed full of fun, with the audience being transported successfully to a nostalgic bygone era. With splendid scrapes, midnight feasts, treasure hunting, cliff top rescues and plenty of jolly hockey sticks.

Daisy Pulls It Off is a delightful pastiche of classic girls’ school stories of old. It is a parody of wholesome adventure stories about life in a 1920s girls' English boarding school.Director Zoe Freedman along with Assistant Director Sophie Clement knew exactly how to create and draw everyone into the wacky world of Daisy Meredith and the prestigious Grangewood School for Young Ladies.They gave us a well-crafted piece with seamless transitions and a lively energy; this play was both stylistically and performatively riveting with just the right amount of silliness.

Strong teamwork was evident throughout this production. Stage Manager Vic Bingham and her backstage team of Ben Hopwood, Matt Haines, Ibrahim Knight, Mia Thomson and Enya Lucas provided a set which allowed movement for a large cast but still gave the impression of an old public school The central display was cleverly designed featuring the all-important portrait and concealed treasure. This was a good focal point, and the Greenwood School Roll of Honour broke up the blacks to the side. Together with the use and precise movement of authentic props, this created just the right look. The lighting enhanced the feel of the piece, creating schoolrooms with a brighter assembly area contrasting nicely with mysterious shadows, or highlighting actors addressing the audience but lit up the action clearly when required. This was all well-designed and operated by Peter Waddicor and Steve Fryatt. The scenic atmosphere and special effects certainly helped dramatise the cliff top rescue scene. Great job.

Suitable sound was ably designed by Aida Knight and Daniel Potts. In the hands of Chris Watson, all appeared to work easily and the sound effects were well-timed. The pre-show and interval music helped to maintain the mood and atmosphere.

Wardrobe was in the safe hands of Margaret Savage and Anna Turner, who created an authentic look for the era. The different colour sashes were a nice touch and helped to identify the groups of pupils. Attention to hair, make-up and footwear was good to see and certainly completed the period look.

Congratulations to Pam Wilson and Alice Patterson for doing such a great job with the musical songs for this show. Tricky additions but well sung which added more highlights, taking the play to another level.

This is not a naturalistic play. The fourth wall was constantly broken as characters directly addressed the audience and hats off to Zoe and the cast for achieving this so decisively.

There is a fine line between a tight pastiche of the English upper-classes and a hammy performance, but here the performers did not trip over the line and were tightly directed. Congratulations Zoe, this was a well-cast and well-performed ensemble play. For it to work, it needed to be tongue in cheek but played straight-faced. The audience couldn’t fail to root for Daisy, and - jubilate! – we did! To sound like 1920s schoolgirls can be a challenge and not easily achieved, but it was obvious a great deal of time and energy had been put in, and the hard work certainly paid off. The tone, accents, speed of delivery along with clear diction and strong projection hit exactly the right note. The young along with the more mature, experienced actors in this play certainly got to grips with the period and language and the general attitudes of the time.

Massive well done to a delightfully talented cast whose performances were sharp and their unique individual characters which had been so carefully developed simply shone through.

Charlotte Butler gave an endearing performance as the sweetly innocent, hopeful, decent, determined Daisy Meredith. A demanding role which she seemed perfectly at home with. Charlotte had a great on-stage rapport with Kaitlin Talbot as her best friend Trixie Martin. Trixie and Daisy made for truly believable friends and had some lovely scenes.

Kaitlin was excellent too, and the two girls were believable together, playing the whole thing straight and for real. Nicely rounded portrayals, they brought the characters realistically to life.

Camilla Asher gave an excellent, commanding performance as the snobby, deceitful school bully Sybil Burlington along with Charlotte Riley as her sidekick Monica Smithers. Together, they were a formidable pairing scheming their way through some hilarious scenes, strutting about the stage and making the most of flouncing out with a brilliant bouncy walk.

As the school rotters they were quite spiffing yet underneath showing they were only victims of class prejudice and money snobbery, and when Sybil confessed to her wrongdoings the audience truly had feelings for the hapless girl. Nicely played.

Hannah Booth strongly portrayed her character, Clare Beaumont. She was so believable as Head Girl of Greenwood and her fellow prefect Alice Patterson as Alice Fitzpatrick had some wonderful expressions, showing their status with a kind but just the sort of stern attitude needed towards the other pupils. Alice was equally decent, trustworthy and crush worthy. Hannah delivered a believable Sports Captain, adored by the younger girls, and a ‘shining example of true British Girlhood’. Both girls' performances were spot on, they inhabited the physicality of the characters completely and were jolly and lovable.

Fellow pupil Melissa Fenton, as Belinda Mathieson , contributed honourably to the ‘scrummy tussles’ She brought a gentle sweetness to the role which contrasted well with the other characters.

All the teaching staff played their roles with believable 1920s style authority.

Jo Scott played Miss Gibson with gravitas, with all the right mannerism and looks of shock horror at the various antics of the girls.

We were also treated to an efficient and rather formidable form teacher, Miss Granville, wonderfully played by Pam Wilson.

Maureen Willis made a good impression as the effervescent and excitable Mademoiselle!

Marie Kwater made the most of her all too brief appearance as Mrs. Meredith. Nicely played.

Diana Anghelina as Madame Scoblowski was suitably enigmatic with a strong accent, she prowled around the halls in a suspicious way, arousing everyone’s suspicions as she should.

Last but by no means the least Barry Blatt convincingly played his part as Mr. Thompson, who was not only the school handy man/gardener but who turned out to be not only Daisy’s father but a member of the Beaumont family to boot!  

“Daisy Pulls It Off” was quite simply a charming light-hearted comedy and this society squeezed out every inch of comedy. A highly enjoyable way to spend an evening, this production made for jolly good fun.

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