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Mary Chase's Harvey, 25th-27th November 1999

Cast List

Veta Louise Simmons Gill James
Elwood P. Dowd Geoff Watts
Miss Johnson Margaret Nivison
Mrs Ethel Chauvenet Barbara Langrish
Ruth Kelly Di Orton
Duane Wilson Simon Vaughan
Lyman Sanderson Simon Goodison
William Chumley Paul Smith
Betty Chumley Margaret Nivison
E.J. Lofgren Nigel Sutcliffe

Synopsis

Elwood P Dowd has wrestled with reality for forty years and has now got reality where he wants it. His mother had advised him to be “oh, so clever” or “oh, so pleasant”. For years he tried clever. Now he finds pleasant is the better option.

This change for what appears to be the better is due to his association with Harvey, who has gone one better than Einstein. Einstein may have overcome time and space. Harvey has done all of that and has also overcome any objections.

Harvey is a pooka, and in this play takes the form of a big white rabbit. Webster’s dictionary defines a pooka as “a mischievous or malignant goblin”. But beware of looking up the definition yourself – you may get a nasty shock just as Wilson does. Just accept that these creatures exist. Have you not had that strange experience, as Veta does with her purse? You know that something is definitely in a certain place, but you are not able to find it there. Then some time later you look again, and it is there, just as you thought it would be? Could there have been a pooka about?

Production Team

Producer Gill James
Box Office Sylvia Monro
Prompt The Cast
Stage Set George O’Connor
  Sarah O’Connor


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