Made In Dagenham

Shoeburyness High School have built a strong reputation, over recent years, for outstanding productions and this one was no exception.  With the biggest cast ever (120 students) and most of the Principal roles played by 2 or even 3 students, this was a massive undertaking just for the logistics.  The fact that the show ran smoothly and was chock full of emotion, passion and superb performances was terrific and fully appreciated by the audiences at all the performances I attended.

I must give full credit to every member of the cast for their enthusiasm, passion and excellent performances.  I was lucky enough to see the production three times, so that I could watch each Principal in their role.  But this also gave me the opportunity to watch the chorus more and spot some really excellent performances amongst the younger members of the cast. 

This is going to be a marathon review, but I want to give credit to all performers who had parts so please bear with me and read it all!

The two young ladies playing Rita O’Grady were superb; Mia Doney has a lovely voice and she produced an excellent characterisation.  Her Rita was strong, passionate and a complete joy to watch.  Vendija Eke produced a different, but equally watchable, performance.  Her characterisation was feisty, spirited and totally Rita!

Three young men played Eddie; Haydn Neale gave an excellent and well thought out performance with some excellent highs and lows to the character.  Reece Emery was a more passionate Eddie displaying all the frustrations that the character demanded.  Oliver Corkett’s Eddie was different, he delivered a multi layered performance that demonstrated the softer side of the character as well as the harder, more expected, one.  All three sang the key song, The Letter, beautifully, bringing their own interpretation to a very emotional song.  They all had me in tears!

Heidi Boualili played Beryl for all three performances; this is a difficult character to get right and, as the script had, quite rightly, been edited to remove all but the least offensive swearing, she had put a lot more into the character.  Which she did with great gusto, producing a very entertaining performance.  There were three other girls in the Principal group; Sandra played by Hattie Wadeson and Caitlin Ledger, Cass played by Mollie Swain and Clare played by Leah Floyd and Amelie Meury-Cashman.   All of them were really good, each brought a different perspective to the character and it was clear that they had given their performance a lot of thought.   The part of Connie, the Union Convener was performed by Nida Savage and Hayley Wellington.  Both gave convincing and strong performances.

There are two characters in this show that are entirely recognisable to those of us who were around in 1969; Harold Wilson and Barbara Castle.  Playing this type of role is particularly challenging for any performer as the audience expects to see the person they recognise from the news.  Charlie Guiver played Harold, not as I had expected but extremely well.  Charlie opted for the comedy and I think he did this very well.  The script gave him many opportunities to poke fun at the original Harold Wilson and Charlie didn’t miss a trick.  Milly Wards interpretation of Barbara Castle was excellent, Milly has a very mature voice and she nailed the accent and character beautifully.  Rosie O’May was the ‘other’ Barbara and, although a different interpretation, very good and she nailed the rather difficult song well.

This cast had a lot of males, something that will be the envy of other companies, and it is lovely to see so many of them taking speaking parts and delivering really good characters.  Tooley (the American) was played by Lewis Barrington-Frost and Roman Clark.  Two great performances, good accents and characterisation.  Kim Hawes and Andrew Stavrinou played Monty.   This is an important part and both these young men displayed great maturity in the role.  It demands some strong emotional reaction and they both nailed it.

Mr Hopkins, the factory General Manager was played by Tom Hutchins and Joe May.  Both understood the character well and delivered good performances.  Lisa Hopkins, his wife, was played by Rose Collis and Kayleigh Brown.  Two quite different interpretations but they both worked equally well for the character.

Now this is where it might get a bit confusing!  There are four characters, Sid and Macer (Union Reps) and Bill and Hubble (Management).  Jack Cottham played both Sid and Macer in different performances.   Oliver Allison played both Bill and Hubble in different performances. Julius Williams played Macer and Timmy Adepoju played Hubble in the other performances.   All four did well, and well done to Jack and Oliver for managing to play two different parts and not mixing them up.  This comment is also directed at everyone who played Principals in one performance and chorus in another.  This as a very hard thing to do and not once did anyone look out of place.  Full credit to the performers for being ‘on the ball’ and to Director Heidi Young and her team for getting the logistics to work.

Finally, I want to mention Ben Shaw (Barry, Cortina Man and Comedian) Josh Heron (Barry and Comedian) Rowan Brown (Cortina Man and Adams) Ethan Heron (Mr Buckton and Adams) Jamie Powell & Toby Lambert (Graham) and Lucy Shepherd, Isabella Rainbow and Millie Miliqi (Sharon) and all the other cast members with lines.  Having small parts is as important as the Principal roles, every one of these younger performers put their heart into their performances and made the show even more enjoyable.

Shoebury is unique in enabling as many students as possible to take part in a show.  I have been watching them for a number of years and it is great to see performers graduating from the ensemble into roles and, eventually taking principal parts.

I cannot complete this review without mentioning the band.   This is the only youth production that I get to see where the band also consists of young people.  More than half of this very good group of musicians are students and this is a testament to the breadth of performing arts education provided by the school.  The sound, under conductor and MD Paul Heron, was excellent and well balanced.

Costumes were excellent, and the minimal scenery was all that was needed to represent the various scenes.  Once again, I have to congratulate the backstage crew; one of my companions had not seen a Shoebury show for some time and he was particularly impressed by the swift and efficient scene changes.  In the past I have described this as being choreographed and that is exactly what it is.  Many adult companies could learn a lot from the attention to detail that Shoebury give to this important function.

Yes, I saw the show three times and I was entranced by each performance.  It was a terrific experience and I look forward to the next production.

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