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Jamaica’s best known comedic actor Oliver Samuels returns to deliver one of his best performance ever in Patrick Brown’s sizzling romantic comedy Puppy Love.
Twenty year old Karen Cross (Natalee Cole) is adamant that her feelings for Dick Johnson (Oliver Samuels) - the married, middle-aged friend and business partner of her father is no Puppy Love, and sets out to win his affection.
Fully cognizant of the consequences of such a liaison being discovered, poor Dick tries desperately to repel Karen’s predatory advances, but weakens and gets sucked in by her alluring and disarming charm and stunningly beautiful and nubile body. After years of a boring marriage to Denise (Dahlia Harris) this unexpected attention is like a breath of fresh air and Dick inhales perhaps a little too much.
This romantic intrigue creates quite a nightmare for Karen’s overly protective father Harry Cross (Earle Brown), who when he finds out swears that he has been double-crossed. The situation drives a wedge between the two men.
But Harry Cross too finds himself in a quandary, as his ongoing liaisons with girls of Karen’s age robs him of a solid moral ground on which to base his objections.
Denise, Dick’s wife of 30 years, turns out to be the only hope for a stabilizing agent in a confused situation, but she too faces her own moments of indecision. Does she walk away from her partner of many years because of his indiscretion, or does she stand by her man irrespective?
Playwright Brown answers some of the piercing questions, leaving others for the audience to ponder. His exploration of the challenges experienced by young people when exposed to peer pressure, that faced by couples when the heat of romance gets extinguished by the passage of time, and the significance of class and ethnicity in relationships in the Caribbean, forces the audience into serious introspection.
Puppy Love “a fun and fast two hours” THE GLEANER
Described as the “wholesome foursome” by one theatre critic, the ensemble cast gels wonderfully in this theatrical gem, with Samuels getting admirable support from co-stars Dahlia Harris, Glen Campbell and Natalee Cole.
Puppy love – laugh till you cry like a Puppy!
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