The sister act with a heart of gold
LOUISE DEARMAN and Laura Pitt-Pulford like each ther. Which is lucky, given hat they portray conjoined Twins daisy and Violet Hilton who, for a time, were headliners in the american-Vaudeville heatre circuit. Originally born in Brighton, he sisters went to the U.S. as youngsters and spent the rest of their lives on show, one way or another, as freaks. dearman and Pitt-Pulford tar in the Bill Russell and Henry Krieger musical Side show, which has had two runs in Broadway but never been performed in this country — until now. it starts previews tonight at he Southwark Playhouse, produced by Paul Taylor-mills and directed by Hannah chissick. i watched rehearsals in a hall in deptford, South-east london, and realised, having seen both Broadway productions, hat it actually works better as an intimate piece. ‘it makes sense for it to be a strippedack, dirtier, grittier version,’ said dearman, a former star of London’s Wicked. and she and Pitt-Pulford, ven without make-up and wigs (one’s blonde, the other’s redhead), are mesmerising as the twins. They were joined together when i saw them and Pitt-Pulford observed that they have some big laughs when they’re not on stage.
dearman said Side Show asks the audience: what’s normal?
Pitt-Pulford added that folks have always had a ‘warped need’ to see people who aren’t like themselves.
and director chissick agreed: ‘We’re driven by voyeurism.’ She suggested the modern-day equivalents of the freak show are all around us: on TV, social media and in print.
But she suggested that Side Show, though ostensibly about ‘freaks’, is not really that at all. at its heart, it is ‘a story of two girls who happen to have this freak of birth’. ‘it’s an intimate story about why we — all of us — are so interested in people who are different.’
The show also features Haydn Oakley, dominic Hodson, Jay marsh, christopher Howell, david muscat, lala Barlow and agnes Pure.