Went along this month to see the Daw Park Players presentation of “TOO SOON FOR DAISIES”. My first visit to this group and they are to be found in a very comfortable little venue which is the Training and Education Centre at the Repatriation General Hospital in Daws Road.
There is a Freda a Joy and an Edie who are on the run from an old folks home, they find themselves in a vacant old house when a Paul drops in and conveniently dies on them leaving them thinking they are free to claim the house as their own. This entails depositing Paul in an old well and covering it over with a rockery.
A succession of characters come along then to make life all very complicated for the old girls and these include Dr. John (an old retired MD neighbour who develops a soft spot for Freda), Jackie, who turns out to be Paul’s niece looking for her uncle, Joe, the local handyman/ plumber who is a top man in wells and finally of course, the inevitable English country Bobby. As state, the play is slow to start but eventually there is a fairly comic situation in place which is worked reasonably well by the players during the latter stages.
Freda is quite convincing as the bossy leader of the trio and Edie is a character with many delightful comic situations, unfortunately many of these were missed in the first two scenes, a good role fairly well played though. Joy left me a bit cold at first as I felt the characterisation a bit excessive (as was the make-up) I had to forgive all eventually though when she did a bit which finds her telling her impromptu life story as a gangster moll. Dr. John played his part well but should know that grey hair alone does not an old man make, his fresh young looking face somewhat ruins my earlier comment of a ‘soft’ spot for Freda. Jackie Joe and the Bobby fulfilled their roles fairly well and rounded the thing off with a necessary support.
Continuity was good, no noticeable clangers and the set was quite well designed and constructed. On stage lighting was ok but I did hate the use of the six little fresnels at the front. The entire procenium and eight rows back were lit like a Xmas tree. I hate to see light anywhere except on stage, it is very distracting for the audience and therefore destructive to the performance.
Anyway, I will watch out for the next Daw Park production, but the Programme did not tell me what it is to be.
THEATRI – CAL
Too Soon for Daisies{organizer:linked}
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