TV personality and national treasure Su Pollard (Hi-De-Hi!; You Rang M’Lord?; Celebrity Masterchef, BBC) will reprise her role in a brand new production of the one-woman Edinburgh Fringe hit, Harpy. Previously scheduled to run in 2020, the production makes a welcome return as part of a new countrywide tour.
Written by award-winning playwright Philip Meeks (Kiss Me Honey, Honey!; Murder, Margaret and Me; The Legend of Sleepy Hollow), the play was originally crafted with Su Pollard in mind. This exciting reinterpretation will be helmed under the direction of Abigail Anderson (Pride and Prejudice, UK and South Korean tour; Macbeth and Much Ado About Nothing, Merely Theatre).
A tour-de-force performance from Pollard, Harpy is a heart wrenching exploration of one woman’s struggles with mental health and loneliness, manifesting itself through extreme hoarding. At heart it’s a bittersweet dramatic comedy, which showcases a grittier side to the Su Pollard of the eighties, and also asks us to look beyond our prejudices against those who appear to disrupt the norm.
Su comments, I am beyond excited to be bringing Harpy across the country at last – we’ve waited a long time! It’ll be terrific to be performing for a live audience and connecting with people once again, bringing this beautiful play to new audiences. Entertainment is essential, especially after the year we’ve had, and I can’t wait to get back on the road.
The neighbours call Birdie a harridan and a harpy even though most of them have never even met her. They see her obsessive hoarding as detrimental to the value of their own homes. For Birdie, saving what others regard as junk allows her to make sense of the world around her; her possessions are memories of a time past. Shunned by conventional society, she regards it as her duty to salvage these tiny histories that without her would be entirely forgotten.
Su Pollard gives the performance of her life, an unmissable tour-de-force of comedy and drama brought together in a fantastically constructed piece of theatre. (★★★★★ Theatre Weekly, Edinburgh Fringe 2018)
Performance Dates
28th – 29th September King’s Theatre
2nd October Hull Truck Theatre
6th October The Horsham Capitol
8th October Theatre Royal Margate
12th October The Hazlitt Theatre
16th October Malvern Theatres
18th October Gala Theatre
20th October Castle Theatre
21st October Waterside Theatre
23rd October Pavilion Arts Centre
26th October Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds
28th October Middlesbrough Theatre
29th October Alnwick Playhouse
30th October Brunton Theatre
6th November Blackpool Grand Theatre
11th – 12th November Leicester Curve, Studio
16th November Taunton Brewhouse
