Lilies on the Land

Lilies on the Land a play performed by Southport Dramatic Club, on Thursday, 15th June 2023 at Southport Little Theatre, Hoghton Street, Southport.

‘Wish Me Luck as You Wave Me Goodbye’ … ‘Lilies on the Land’ is a revealing, funny and wonderfully moving portrayal of four women who sign up to join the Women’s Land Army during World War II. The play was devised and first performed by the extremely popular and highly regarded theatre company called ‘The Lions part’. The Lions part… placed an ‘open letter’ in the Saga Magazine asking members of the Women’s Land Army to contact them if they would send reminiscences and material about their experiences… they received one hundred and fifty letters in reply!  They then went on to speak with and interview some of the respondents personally and crafted this play from that information! The play charts the personal journeys of four women who join the Women’s Land Army determined to work endless backbreaking hours on farms across the country, in a bid to do their best for the War Effort.

Production Team… this challenging and dialogue-heavy script had been placed in the safe and experienced hands of Paul Wilkinson (Director). Paul in his programme notes, tells us about how he sets about and enjoys putting a production together; how working with different people like Jon ‘the sound guy’… who is just over the moon when he finds the perfect piece of music or the perfect Churchillian speech to enhance the production, it isn’t all about being on stage… there are so many people involved in making a production happen!  It was obvious that Paul himself had a good handle on this story and with some fine committed actors at his disposal, who were well rehearsed and who provided us with some great comedic yet poignant performances that Paul was able to piece together beautifully, using the intimate space that the ‘Bar’ at Southport Little Theatre provided!  Well done, Paul… great job sir!

The Cast… as most will know, this is where I usually ‘stick my neck out’ and start suggesting favourites, My favourites … but I found myself in a bit of a dilemma, because this was another production that saw ‘the whole being far greater than the sum of its parts’… an expression stolen from Aristotle which basically means in this situation, that the success of this production wasn’t down to an individual, but down to the cast coming together as team, working their socks off and creating a beautiful piece of theatre… and there’s not much more you can ask!  The cast was… Jen Corcoran, Lisa Tatler, Wendy Cox and Marilyn Fletcher-Hill who played Margie, Peggy, Poppy and Vera respectively… plus a myriad of other characters along the way!  Their story gave us an insight into how these women, hailing from different walks of life, torn from their families and bereft of all basic home comforts, dealt with the hardships of farming life and the pressures of war? They had to learn a lot quickly, how to ‘milk a cow’; ‘deliver a baby cow’; ride a bicycle’, drive a tractor… whilst coming to terms with clothing full of mice and ‘toilet rolls’ falling from the sky!  I recognised the names of the four ladies involved, having seen them before on stage, but actually recognising them, was a far more difficult proposition… so I needed to listen carefully in an attempt to identify who was who… but, at no point did I actually hear the character names spoken, which I had confirmed at the end of the production by two friends in the audience!  But, if I’m honest, the character names were irrelevant … this was all about, the lives, the memories, the hardships, the friendships, the disasters and the experiences that these four ladies had to endure just to survive!  All four cast members provided us with some great characters that oozed stage presence … they all had the ability to characterise the many different guises they were asked to produce… they gave us mannerisms and facial expressions aplenty, different accents were achieved and changed with effortless ease … because of the staging, the cast also had the added responsibility of setting and re-setting scenes… which were seamlessly interwoven into the production!  As the play progressed you couldn’t help but ‘warm’ to all the different characters who continuously gave us laugh-out loud moments sprinkled with poignant situations along the way which were dealt with sensitively and sympathetically!  We laughed, we cried, we were shocked, we were disgusted at the treatment they had to endure… be ever so proud ladies… this was a wonderfully poignant production, well thought out and well delivered which was thoroughly enjoyed by all those present that evening.  The applause at the end said it all… you helped produce what was a fitting tribute to those ladies from the WLA often dubbed ‘THE FORGOTTEN ARMY’.  Congrats and well-done ladies!  

Staging/Set/Tech … this was my first visit to SDC’s ‘Bar Production’ and I was intrigued to see how they would convert the ‘bar space’ into a ‘staged area’.  It was dealt with very professionally, with the staging being set on the opposite wall to the bar itself and the audience placed on the other three sides… which worked really well!   A simple set with a beautifully painted idyllic countryside back drop greeted us as we entered. There were baskets, benches, brooms, an authentic ‘pitchfork’ loaned from the Museum of Rural Lancashire and a table with an old-fashioned black typewriter situated thereon. As stated previously, the scene changes were minimal and carried out seamlessly by the cast. Lighting was simple yet effective… Sound, used mainly for newsclips and contributory music was excellent … congrats to Dave Cox (Stage Manager/Lights), Syd Coley (Lighting Design), Jon Andrews (Sound) and the cast for their efforts throughout. I really do enjoy these ‘intimate productions’; with the audience almost part of the action… they can and do place additional pressure on the cast, but as with tonight, that additional pressure sometimes brings out the best in actors… congrats to all involved, great performance!

Costumes…. congrats to Michele Martin and Sam Fulstow (Costume Team) … costumes were picture-perfect as was the hairstyles.
Props… were authentic, apt and used extremely well throughout by the cast… Fi Billington was the one tasked with keeping a close eye on them… congrats Fi!

Lynne Hawksworth … I was made aware, before I attended the production, of the sad passing of Lynne. Lynne was a hugely popular figure here at SDC and was the assigned ‘prompt’ for this show.  I know that her passing caused much heartache within the cast and within the SDC community. To all those involved in this production and to all at SDC… I know she will be missed for sure, but I think she would have been ever so proud of what you and she helped achieve… from me and all at NODA RIP Lynne….

Thank you once again for inviting my wife and I we thoroughly enjoyed the production, already looking forward to seeing your young members stage The Addams Family at the Little Theatre…

Stay safe and keep well…
‘STRONGER TOGETHER’

Jim Briscoe
NODA North West
District 6 Rep

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