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/
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