JAILHOUSE FROCKS AN ENTERTAINING FROLIC
The latest show by New Plymouth’s Little Theatre, The Jailhouse Frocks was written by New Zealand playwright Devon Williamson.
Directed by Emma Walker, the comedy is set in a jailhouse where the mild mannered and rather dim police offi cer successively arrests three women for various offences who all end up together in the clink – one a mad cat lady recently returned from India, the second, drunk – arrested despite protests she’s the mayor’s wife – and the third, a young punk who is disturbing the peace by roaring around on her noisy motorbike.
The amiable though somewhat distracted warder – periodically breaking out into song – attempts to keep order among the three who are initially sceptical of each other.
When a New York gangster, disguised as an FBI agent with revenge on his mind, later storms the jail the three women who have now formed their own formidable gang manage to thwart his plans and he ends up in the lock up.
Jenny McKegney Brown as Elena arrives as a very convincing drunk. Loud and unabashed she played her part beautifully while Briar Tucker as Gloria Romano, the young punk with edge reprimanding Elena that she needed to forge her own identity and not just shelter under the moniker of the mayor’s wife, was just perfect in the role. Chere Stevenson who stepped in at short notice to play Cathy, a role Mary Barron was to play before she pulled out due to a painful injury, played the part she inherited of a slightly dotty hippy earth mother figure commendably.
Of the music that periodically accompanies the action I especially enjoyed the delightful first song by officer Dwayne (played by Bailey Thompson). His character, naïve and inept was nicely captured as he, in the end, falsely takes credit for the arrest of a lifetime when the police chief (Andrew Beale) arrives.
Justin Lowcay as the gangster initially disguised as an FBI agent, now captured and at the mercy of the lascivious Cathy, licking her lips in anticipation, provided a very funny end to the action in the final scene.
I did miss Mary Barron who is a great comic actor (as well as director in many of the New Plymouth Little Theatre’s plays) originally cast as Cathy who had to pull out of the play at such short notice; an unfortunate loss.
It was all rather fun. I found myself highly amused chortling at the end of the first half at the ludicrousness of the unfolding action and, cheered by the end that women together using their combined wit and courage were able to foil the notorious gangster.
Great stuff.
The Jailhouse Frocks continues its run at New Plymouth’s Little Theatre till December 13.
B McKellar
4 December 2025