Credit: The Pappy Show
Reviewer: Rachel Foster
Upstaged Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Girls by The Pappy Show performed in Manchester as part of Incoming Festival, a selection of the best-emerging theatre companies around the UK. The festival is in Manchester, London and Bristol.
The night starts encouragingly with a packed house and a cordial upbeat welcome by smiley cast members who are distinct by the balloons shoved up their t-shirts. Billed as bringing you stories of women aged 17 to 70 it sounds very promising.
However it never really gets off the ground. The opening scene is a song by the cast with an ironic version of ‘I’m a Barbie Girl.’ The enthusiasm and bags of energy is paramount and catching. This is them at their best cohesive and funny. It doesn’t seem to have a thread and seemed to become a series of anarchic skits where it really was unclear what was going on. It certainly has the potential, but for some reason doesn’t quite hit the mark. After a while, the comedy didn’t seem so funny. It was all a little bland with no new ideas or anything that hasn’t been done before on the themes of empowering women.
Everyone seemed to be around the same age (in their twenties) apart from Ursula who frequently pokes fun at herself as none-attractive. Although when she talks about her life growing up in London without a mother this is one of the better moments and gives some depth and seriousness to the show.
One of the actors wears a t-shirt with the name Joe Cox on and initially this has a powerful impact but again this is lost against the ‘crazy’ leaping around, fighting in wedding dresses and singing. They are throughout accompanied by a young woman on keyboards who had an excellent voice but seems slightly disconnected with the rest of the cast. In the end, moments that were meant to be emotional just weren’t and it all became a bit tedious. The Pappy Show need to revamp things before they embark on their next venture.
-Rachel Foster