November 2010 Production

Daisy Pulls it Off! - Review

From the Croydon Advertiser - 10th December 2010

Review by Theo Spring

ATG are gaining something of a reputation for stretching both their own horizons and the parameters which might confine them due to a small stage.

Set in a gracious building at Grangewood School to which elementary pupil Daisy has won the first ever scholarship.

The scene changes encompass the hall, studies, head's room, classrooms, sanatorium, hockey pitch and, most demanding of all, a cliff top with a shaky ledge far below it. All this ATG achieved with ingenuity, some good props and a good team of set builders. Word perfect, Ali Morris bore the lion's share of the script as Daisy, with Christine Woodhead creating madcap Trixie Martin in the style of boarding school fiction - the pair sparked so well off each other.

The baddies, Sybil Burlington (Louise Canfield) and Monica Smithers (Genevieve Binefa) also created a good partnership but this time of unkindness and horrid pranks.

Catherine Blundell and Nicky Chowne were head girl and deputy Clare and Alice, capturing the realisation of responsibilities for the school and their futures. The staff,, under head Miss Gibson (Linda Harris), were all straight out of Blyton's Mallory Towers. Gary Shaw's best Russian accent as Mr Scablowski the singing teacher brought in the spy element whilst Jill Maynard's Miss Granville, form teacher for the upper fourth, was fair but firm. Ellie Driscoll, Gee Rook, Becky Warburon, Carolyn Screech and John Desbottes contributed small cameo roles.

A secret society, hunting for treasure and not sneaking, all added up to a jolly evening's entertainment and, jubilate, director Jeremy Nicholls got it spot on.