Daffodils

Daffodils wasinspired by a true love story that began in 1964 in New Zealand.

Told through the music that tracked a meeting, a courtship, a marriage, a family and, unfortunately, a divorce, it has all the pace and pizzazz of modern musical theatre without the usual trappings.

Sometimes funny, sometimes a little bit sad, often loud, but never slow, Daffodils has been selected to feature at the prestigious Traverse Theatre in the upcoming Edinburgh Festival Fringe – an honour that has not been afforded a NZ company since 1999.

On the most minimal of sets – two carpet runners, two microphones, a three-piece band and some nostalgic and cleverly shot images by Garth Badger – the story is told in words and music by the couple themselves. The economy and simplicity of the dialogue make it remarkably honest and the music locates and condenses time, distance and emotion.

Eighteen-year-old Eric (Todd Emerson) finds sixteen-year-old Rose, (Colleen Davis), drunk and disoriented beside a lake surrounded by daffodils. It is 3am, and, like the gentleman he is, Todd ‘rescues’ her and takes her home to her parents’ farm over an hour’s drive away.

Romance blossoms, despite Rose’s strict Presbyterian mother, and Todd’s already planned ‘grand tour’ to America and Europe. Excerpts from his letters home are beautifully evocative of a 1960s love story – a little reticent, a little awkward and lovingly simple. By a weird coincidence, Todd’s parents met in the same park beside the same daffodils – so daffodils become a family symbol and thus the title of the show.

Backed both vocally and instrumentally by Stephanie Brown on keyboards (yes, two!), Abraham Kunin and Fen Ikner, Emerson and Davis sing up a storm with a selection of songs that evoke the mood of each scene. Crowded House, Bic Runga, Chris Knox, The Mint Chicks, The Swingers and Blam Blam Blam feature among many others. Emerson has no trouble moving from 60s rock to love songs. Davis matches him in expressive renditions and there some lovely moments of harmony.

But … they are also accomplished actors, and find the complexity of their characters in snippets of very natural dialogue that show them moving from gauche teenagers to mature adults to responsible parents.

Unfortunately, Daffodils ‘blooms’ for only three days on the Lennox stage at Riverside Theatres – a regrettably short season for a production that is so fresh and unusual. Let’s hope they really rock Edinburgh.

Carol Wimmer

Photographer: Garth Badge.