Three short plays

Miss Polly had a Dolly written and directed by Daniel Curley

The Monkeys Paw written by W.W.Jacobs and Directed by Sharon Goodwin

The Horrible Thing in the Garden by Mary Neild and Directed by Paulette Harris

For the week of Halloween Writtle CARDS offered three chilling short plays each with a different director.

Miss Polly had a Dolly – Directed and Written  by  Daniel Curley

For the first offering of the evening we had the very talented Daniel Curley who not only directed but also wrote the play and even had a small walk on role at the end. This play takes the nursery rhyme” Miss Polly had a dolly,” and gives us a spine chilling tale of a mother who has a secret in the attic. She is hiding a fifteen year old daughter, from a liaison with an American soldier, during World War 2. The mother continues through the years to entertain various gentlemen to keep up her lifestyle. A bitter and twisted woman she gives no love or nurture to the child in the attic who becomes mentally unhinged. The denouement is shocking with an interesting twist at the end.  A Black costumed chorus were also involved which gave this play another strange dimension and something to talk about in the interval. This was well choreographed by Daniel.

Liz Curley, excellently portrayed the mother showing us an evil manipulative, almost repulsive woman, who cares for no one but herself.  Liz always is a pleasure to watch on stage and she did this role justice. The daughter was played by Louise Curley. Yes this really was a family affair.  Louise is definitely taking after her parents with experienced acting; portraying the role of Polly with good expression and projection, at first with naivety, then with venom at the end.

Dr Thomas who is one of the gentlemen who visits the mother over ten years and is almost proud to call himself Dr Death, states that he is a professional to the last! He boasts of the people he has killed to inherit their wealth. The mother blackmails him to kill her daughter but he fails in this and is murdered by Polly.  Martin Warner took on this uneasy role.  I would have liked to have seen a little more confidence in his demeanour and stance but he had good projection and clarity of speech.

The walk on at the end by Daniel Curly as Mr Lucas ended the play, giving the audience plenty to talk about afterwards.  A very unusual and chilling piece with a sparse, black, simple set and well thought out costumes.

The Monkeys Paw by W W Jacobs directed by Sharon Goodwin

One dark and wet night the White family are entertaining Sergeant-Major Morris (Daniel Curley), at their house, where he narrates to them all about his life and travels in India. He shows them a Monkeys paw and tells them that it is enchanted by an Indian Fakir and will give three wishes to three different people. He warns them that the first man was so unlucky with his first two wishes that he used the last to wish for death. The Sergeant-Major is so bitter about his three wishes that he throws the paw into the fire.  Mr White (Jerry Thomas) retrieves the paw and wishes for £200 to pay off his mortgage. The next day the son dies in a work related accident and they are awarded the exact sum as compensation by a representative of the company. (Clare Williams)

Mrs White (Paulette Harris) is so devastated at the loss of her son that ten days later she entreats her husband to use the paw to bring her son back to life. Just as the son bangs on the door Mr White realises that this will be his son’s corpse now alive and wishes him dead.

This was a powerful story which perhaps needed a little more direction, the blocking was a bit sticky with little room to move on stage so sometimes they had to squeeze onto the chairs around the table.

The narrating of the piece by Danny Stokes was well spoken but sometimes it was hard to hear all the dialogue over the sound system. The acting was a little subdued and I would have liked to have seen more emotion shown from the family.  A more spine chilling finale might have been thought about - if we had caught a glimpse of the corpse at the door looking suitably horrible to give the audience the shock factor at end the show. I just felt that it needed a bit more suspense to indicate the horror to come but nevertheless a well-chosen piece for Halloween.

The Horrible Thing in the Garden by Mary Neild  Directed by Paulette Harris

For the last play of the evening we were offered a comedic fun, melodramatic play – The Horrible Thing in the Garden’

Jean Spellar as genteel Violet opened the show singing “Come into the Garden Maud” marvellously out of tune, Jean is a joy to watch and had her character totally convincing as the spinster longing for a man to come and take her away from her humdrum life with her sister Rose (Sharon Goodwin).  Rose screams into the living room to tell her sister she has found a body under the Rhododendrons with a hatchet next to the body covered in blood.  Has this body been killed by the sleep walking housekeeper Mrs Honeybun (Katherine Thomas) who  is addicted to reading horror stories and talks nonstop about them. The daughter Marietta Honeybun (Jodee Goodwin) visits to tell them it’s in fact a scarecrow missing from a farmers’ field - or is it?????

This was a charming piece to finish the evening even if Mrs Honeybun tended to lose her words occasionally.  Well directed and projected by all the cast, it did bring a smile to the audience at the end of a chilling evening.

Well done to all the cast and crew and thank you for a most spine chilling Halloween evening.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.