WE’RE handed a party popper, an envelope and a pair of oversize glasses before taking our seats to join Donna, the amiable and awkward star of this short play – a sell-out at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival – by local writer Lee Mattinson.
Our message from “Donna” inside the envelope is to wear the glasses, but hang on to the popper until she gives us the word.
And so we enter the surreal world of a bespectacled, overweight schoolgirl, sharing her weird and wonderful stream of consciousness as, helped by a ventriloquist’s doll (or, in this case, fox) and glove puppets, the 14-year-old relays her short life’s experiences.
There’s the death of her beloved dad, tea with nan, constant bullying at school and finally finding an unlikely friend in the cross-dresser downstairs who she picks as an interesting subject for a school project.
Over one hour, 10 minutes, Paula Penman carries the responsibilities of a one-woman show with ease, in a raw performance as the innocent butt of the school joke and totally absorbing our attention, from the painful intake of breath as Donna talks about her father to the touching childlike joy – described as a reindeer disco dancing inside her – that she finds through her new friend.
And it’s peppered with hilarious little explosions of expletives and puppet battering – suppressed with a guilty “sorry” – prompted by thoughts of her two worst bullies.
Some lines fall too randomly to hit the mark, while others sparkle.
By the end we’ve a lump in the throat as we find out what happens when Donna is about to impress with her project, which earned her praise from a boy she liked, but provoked more venom from the bullies.
Donna’s what’s-important-in-life message is an uplifting final moment after such a note of sorrow ... and it marks a fine time for those poppers.
For those wanting to continue the party, there’s a mini disco going on afterwards in the theatre bar as well as some Donna-inspired cocktails and a chance to have your picture taken in the disco gear provided.
Barbara Hodgson