Simon Ward reviews Poppies at the Camden People’s Theatre

Running as part of this year’s SPRINT Festival for new work at the Camden People’s Theatre, Poppies is an intensely personal piece written by the cast, Jim Spencer Broadbent and Johnjoe Irwin. They play versions of themselves ‘Jim’ who is English and ‘Johnjoe’ who is Irish. The premise of the play is that the two are best friends – they have spent time together in Ireland and now share a flat in England – but they seem to be spending less time together recently. Johnjoe has been going through a breakup with his girlfriend and has been feeling distinctly unsupported. Jim, on the other hand, is getting increasingly fixated on an idea of Englishness that he can take pride in. And this, it turns out, is a long running sore point between the two. ForJohnjoe, the Remembrance Day poppy is a symbol of the oppression carried out by the British army over centuries; for Jim it is the one symbol he has which allows him to feel pride in his country.

It is billed as a comedy, and there are indeed many very funny moments, but, as ever with the interface between Ireland and Britain it quickly gets complicated and dark. Switching between naturalistic dialogue and increasingly surreal conjured up scenes of remembered childhood events or imaginary poppy-based cultural enforcement, the piece is a testament to the pair’s creativity. One of the funniest incidents takes place behind the scenes at an unnamed talkshow, where an Irish guest is about to take the stage without the requisite poppy. The outraged policing of poppy-wearing by the right-wing tabloid press is thoroughly skewered here. But the genuine longing that Jim has to be able to feel a confident sense of belonging and national pride is also clearly expressed. It does not seem to be easy for the English to replicate for themselves the gay abandon with which the Irish celebrate St Patrick’s Day, for example. And that weird English mixture of reticence, guilt and anger can be transmuted into something very ugly and very dangerous.

The pair have what might be called a casual disregard for the fourth wall, it disappears from time to time but is never gone for long. There is a certain amount of audience participation, but it is very non-threatening. Both performers are excellent as they navigate between a dizzying array of roles, and they find real emotional depth along with the laughter. They do not shy away from the complexities either – it is really not as simple as Ireland good, England bad, and no country’s history is perfect. While the ending is bleakly challenging, there remains a modicum of hope. The poppy is, after all, a flower of great beauty, and this is actually, an unexpectedly beautiful piece of work.

Poppies played at the Camden People’s Theatre, 58-60 Hampstead Road, London NW1 2PY on Friday 27th March, prior to shows at the Greenwich Theatre and the Brighton Fringe.