Not cancelled, just postponed, insists “ultimate optimist” Su
Su Pollard should have been heading to Horsham’s Capitol next week in her one-woman show. Instead, the venue, like venues around the world, is shut as we try to find our way through the coronavirus crisis. Speaking just before the closures struck, Su was certainly ready for the worst – but also ready for the day we all emerge the other side. The point is that Su declares herself to be the ultimate optimist. “I won’t believe anything until they give us a day’s notice,” she says. “But even if the performance does get cancelled, then it will just be postponed.” Su’s point is that Harpy (originally supposed to be in Horsham on Thursday, April 23) is a show which is meant to be seen: “It is a show that is relevant for a lot of people. It is a show that could go around the world. Lots of people have mental health problems.
People around the world have mental health problems.” And that’s what the show addresses. And that’s why it’s a show everyone needs to see, Su believes. Birdie’s a hoarder. The neighbours call her a harridan and a harpy, although most have never even met her. They see her hoard as a hazard for house prices.
But it isn’t rubbish. It’s her life’s work, and it exists because years ago something deeply cherished was stolen from her; Birdie’s not been able to give up anything since. She’ll do anything to get this priceless thing back. Anything at all… The play is a bittersweet dark drama from Fringe First award winner Philip Meeks (Kiss Me Honey, Honey!, Murder, Margaret and Me). “I first met Philip about seven years ago when we were in panto together. He doesn’t necessarily perform a lot, but he absolutely loves panto, and he is nearly always the dame. You should see his frocks! He spends thousands on his frocks!
“And he said to me ‘I am thinking of writing something, Su. Would you be interested in it?’ I said I am always interested and asked him to send me a treatment. He did. I saw two pages, and I loved it straight away. “This is about mental health, but not doom-andgloom mental health. This is not about someone who is absolutely barmy, but about someone who has her own way of doing things.” The piece is based on a hoarder neighbour of Philip’s, and he bumped into her in a shop without realising it was her. He started talking about the hoarder, and she said: “I believe you are talking about me. I am that lady!” In the piece, she is quite a character. Su said: “She loves to sing. She loves karaoke. It is about how she is perceived by others, and how she copes with a certain amount of loneliness and wants to try to make sure that her life is better than it is at the moment. “She has to take mental health tablets. But as with so many people who have problems, you have had a tragic loss at some point. It is not the actual hoarding that is the problem; it is more about what happened at some point. “And the amazing thing is that Birdie is not an isolated character. There are millions of people around the world who are in her situation. Philip Meeks was very, very good at the research.” The fact of being a onewoman show obviously brings plenty of challenges: “You want to be true to the piece. You want to be DLP. It is what David and Jimmy (Croft and Perry, creators of Hi-deHi! in which Su starred) used to say. Dead letter perfect. “It meant that you didn’t paraphrase or you would lose the rhythm of what you were saying. “I would say to Jimmy ‘Is it alright if I put a Hi-de-Hi! in there?’ and he would say ‘No, not this time, but if you want to put one in somewhere else, then let me know in advance.’ But you have got to remember the writer spent a long time getting this right, and the director spent a long time teasing out the meaning.”