The Funny Girls

Review by: Paul Towers, 18/11/2021

The Funny Girls by Roy Smiles

Produced by Thomas Hopkins, in association with Andrew Exeter, directed by Michael Strassen

Starring Mia Tomlinson & Rosanna Harris

Upstairs at The Gatehouse 26 Oct to 21 November 2021

 “a fast paced script full of Jewish humour”

 In 1961 19 year old Barbra Streisand was trying desperately to escape sleeping on the couch of her overbearing and hyper-critical Jewish mother. To that end she wanted to be an actress and was appearing off-off Broadway in a disaster called Driftwood.

It was in this production that she encountered a 24 year old Joan Rivers who played her lesbian stalker. Finding out that her mother was seated front and centre Barbra was terrified of going on and facing her critical comments. Bonding over their shared experiences of overbearing mothers Joan tasks herself with talking Barbra into going onstage. Joan, after all, has an agent in that night.

So for the first half we have the two struggling actresses biting chunks out of their lives as they bouy each other up until Joan literally drags Barbra onto the stage as the curtain rises.

In the second half we fast forward 10 years and Miss Streisand is a Las Vegas star while Miss Rivers is a national comedy star. Now the egos are starting to run out of control as they vie to be the most successful diva. The one-liners become more vicious and they end up fighting in Streisand’s dressing room before walking off arm in arm.

Obviously the dialogue is all imagined but the bare bones of the story is real. Streisand and Rivers did meet in an awful play off-off-Broadway and did become sort of friends.

As Streisand Rosanna Harris has the look and the voice, which she uses to great effect at the end of act one when she bursts into song. Mia Tomlinson as Joan Rivers is less effective. While looking quite like Rivers she spoils the characterisation with too much gurning and pauses (for laughter?). That said the pair go great guns when the script ramps up the one-liners. It is like machine gun fire as they rip into each other.

Roy Smiles has fashioned a fast paced script full of Jewish humour.

This was my first visit to Upstairs at The Gatehouse and I was impressed with the spacious auditorium and the friendly welcome from the staff.

The Funny Girls is at Upstairs at The Gatehouse until 21 November 2021

http://thefunnygirls.co.uk/

http://ptheatre.blogspot.co.uk/

 

Harpy

 Review by: Paul Towers, 11 November 2021

Harpy by Philip Meeks, starring Su Pollard

Produced by Something For The Weekend

At Curve: 11-12 November 2021

 “Su Pollard is a revelatory tour de force”

 Harpy [ hahr-pee ]
(1) (lowercase) a scolding, nagging, bad-tempered woman; shrew.

 Birdie has mental health problems. She has unfairly been called a harpy, a psycho, a mad woman.  But so long as she keeps taking her medication she can be self sufficient. Her flat is crammed full of mementoes, and not just of her life. She picks up things that people have discarded in case they are important. She has lost things in her life and would hate for someone to lose something just because nobody looked after it. She has a love/hate relationship with her social workers and often refuses to engage with them. She has been pigeonholed as ‘mentally ill’ but really she considers herself just to be ‘different’. Who are we to judge?

Award winning playwright Philip Meeks has created Harpy especially for national treasure Su Pollard and it perfectly fits her capabilities being in turns hilarious and poignant, all played out against the soundtrack of the 80’s

The first half is peppered with killer lines like “Just because I kept a Jehovah’s Witness in the broom cupboard for 3 days suddenly I’m Joseph Frtizel!” which suddenly take you by surprise.

The second half, when Birdie has stopped taking her medication, delves into her back story and goes some way to explaining how she has got to where she is. Sad as it all is humour is never far away as Birdie battles with her neighbours and her social workers.

Su Pollard is a revelatory tour de force in this hilarious one-woman show directed by Abigail Anderson.

Tour details available at: https://www.sftw.info/harpy

 Curve https://www.curveonline.co.uk/
http://ptheatre.blogspot.co.uk/