The Small Poppies

The Small Poppies is playing at the Playhouse theatre until the 19th of April. Show starts at 7pm – good time for the kiddies, oldies and early worms. The play is set around the lives of children at a South Australian primary school in the 1980’s. It explores the innocence and inherent wisdom of children, while detailing the emotional complexity of beings still in development – a mini map of ourselves. Small Poppies also shows the positive effects of a multicultural society and how with a little tolerance and understanding, we can all get along. First of all, great choice of script. There is a reason Geoffrey Rush directed this play. Childhood frivolity combined with endearing pathos makes this play very affecting. As the audience members walk into the foyer, they are met with a facsimile of primary school wall, with bags hanging on hooks amongst other memorabilia. When they enter the performance area, the seating is not set towards the front stage as one might expect, but placed in a semi circular formation facing the side wall displaying backdrop covered in child like pictures. This is accompanied by well known children’s songs playing over the speakers. When I saw this, I thought I had walked onto the set of playschool. This fantastic set folded out into different backdrops throughout the play, making the most of this small performance area. As the play starts we are introduced to the trio protagonists – Clint (Garry Davies), Theo (Michael Limb) and Kep (Paige Marshall) and then taken a journey to see how family and school life create a child’s subjectivity. This play had a wonderful ensemble performance, radiating a chemistry that makes delightful to watch. There were no weak performances, which greatly enhanced the quality of the show. Well done to the cast of eight. I think, however, that the stand out performance was Paige Marshall, who plays a young Cambodian girl, despite being a mousey-brown haired, Caucasian adult. This distracted me for about ten minutes, but Paige’s physicality and vocal ability were so authentic, that I actually believed she was a young girl of a different racial group. I had only a few minor issues with the show, the most prominent being that there too many scene changes, leaving the audience waiting around longer for the change than the scene itself. At times I found it hard to see, especially when the children sat down, owning to the seating arrangement. And there were some very obvious historical errors (i.e. Brett Lee being referred to in the 1980’s). Nonetheless, a very entertaining piece of theatre and well worth a night out to relive your childhood.