Made in Dagenham

Mid Cheshire Musical Theatre Company opened their 2020 season this week with the musical Made in Dagenham.  Set in the late 1960’s this story centre’s around the sewing machinists industrial strike and their quest for equal pay at the Ford factory in Dagenham. 

Stuart Dutton took the helm as the director for this production, his first for the society.  There were many great attributes that I can talk about, from the acting, storytelling and visuals, but unfortunately, I also have to mention the many technical elements that negatively affected this production.  Getting the negatives out of the way, the massive set and scene changes were woeful, and I really felt sorry for the stage crew who were clearly very busy and working very hard.  Whilst the set looked great, it may have been prudent to simplify not using certain parts, such as cloths etc especially for such short scenes.  The beginning of the show was choreographed well as the ladies in the factory brought on their own sewing machines and the transitions between scenes were smooth.  However, the longer the production went on, the more messy, clumsy and static the scene changes became.  This resulted in stage crew walking onstage in the middle of scenes etc.  Another technical element that was particularly detrimental to the production was the sound levels and the quality of the sound.  There was no distinction between singing over the live band and speaking onstage – the levels were exactly the same.  Mics were not cued on time and for me, the levels in the speaking scenes were far too loud.  Apart from a few people blocking each other and speaking upstage (I fear this was the fault of the staging not the direction) the overall direction was good.  The whole piece looked great, there were many comedic moments throughout which gave the audiences plenty of laughs and the storyline was clear.  Despite the many technical difficulties, the audience enjoyed this musical and it is such a shame that the set had such an effect on the show as it had SO much potential.

The Musical Director for this production was once again Ian Sherwood.  Ian, with the help of conductor (Caitlin Sherwood) was able to showcase some nice harmonies with this vast cast and it was very pleasing to hear strong vocals from this society.  The band played well and the levels from all sections was great – even the drummer – who was fab!

Choreography (Jenna Finnigan) was more stylised movement which, at times, looked really effective, particularly during ‘Made in Dagenham’, ‘Union Song’ and ‘Everybody Out’.  The staging of ‘This is America’ was very good and it was particularly great to see the cheerleaders who performed brilliantly and had us all on the edge of our seats. 

The costumes were generally very good.  I saw a few skinny jeans and one suit with tapered trousers but overall, the costumes were in-keeping with the style and the era.  The make-up was similar.  Although the lighting was a series of general washes and colours they were cued well, used well to add layers and textures and added to each scene.  The same cannot be said for the sound however.  As I previously mentioned, the sound really wasn’t great.  I appreciate that this venue is very difficult to work with due to the lack of acoustics etc but it has been done before.  In my opinion, the cues in this production were not always on time, levels were not set correctly and the static buzzing from the speakers was distracting.

The story centres around the leading lady Rita O’ Grady, played by Catherine Baddeley.  Catherine was good in this role and held the story together quite nicely.  I liked her rapport with the other factory girls as well as her rapport with her husband Eddie.  Despite her voice sounding a little tired, Catherine sang well and acted well through song.

Martyn Bernado played the role of the ‘American’ Mr Tooley.  Despite not being in the show for most of the first act, Martyn’s character came in with a bang!  ‘This is America’ was one of the highlights and looked visually great.  Martyn had a good characterisation using his body and voice well to portray character.  I would’ve preferred not to have seen the cigar appear and disappear (lit) into his pocket but this is just an observation.

One of the strongest performances came from Barbara Castle, played brilliantly by Debbie Allen.  I loved both the styling of this character and the character portrayal.  Debbie used her voice to deliver her lines in a great way that meant the comedy landed on point and the storyline was clear for us all to hear – a fantastic and strong performance!

Equally good and equally funny as Barbara, Joy Wiswell’s Harold Wilson interpretation was well received by the audience.  Joey’s interpretation was a little Peter Kay esq which really worked for this character.  His scenes with Debbie Allen were highlights and a joy to watch.

Ben Obeid-Findley played the role of the suffering husband of Rita O’Grady, Eddie.  Ben was very naturalistic in this role and believable as the character.  I liked the subtle looks and way in which he drew the audience in rather than performing to us.

One thing that stood out in this show was the women in the supporting cast and the ensemble.  Strong performances, rapport and camaraderie from this cast were well received and evident.  Laura Johnson gave a strong performance and was VERY believable as the dim-witted Claire.  She was a highlight for me.  Georgia Brooksbank was well cast as Sandra and displayed some great vocals.  Emily Austin (Cass) had her moments to shine and both Diane Quinlivan Hurst and Jacqui Burgess were well cast as Beryl and Connie respectively.  Beryl is a great role to play as she gets lots of the swearing and punchlines and Diane didn’t disappoint, giving a great performance.  Jacqui gave a strong believable performance as Connie also.  Gemma Da Silva gave a nice performance as the supportive Lisa Hopkins. The rest of the female cast had their part to play in this ensemble show and it is very important to have a strong community feel which came across.  I found myself watching the supporting female cast a lot and each one was engaged in the story – this was obviously something worked on with director Stuart Dutton.

The supporting male members of the cast were very busy in their ever-changing roles.  At times it was a little difficult to work out who was who as they changed characters so much, but they all worked hard and delivered their lines well to move the story along.  Phil Hilditch was entertaining as Monty and gave a strong performance with good comic timing as the supressed factory supervisor.  Steve Hart, John Fielding, Matt Weaver, Matt Austin, Alan Docker and Jake Grayson all worked hard to showcase their skills.  Joe Moore was funny and delivered his lines with great comic timing, and Robert Earle was very believable as Ron Macer.  Steve Hart’s Hopkins was a little superficial for me but overall these men worked very hard which didn’t go unnoticed. 

With such a large cast the members were used well throughout this ensemble piece.  The community spirit was great to see as were the great vocals.   Performance wise, this production was good and had so much potential of being brilliant. It was affected and let down by the technical elements.  It was clear to see that the cast were having a great time on stage and have forged some great professional working relationships with each other.  This really came across and helped us go on the journey with them.  The audience were entertained, and I overheard some audience members being very complimentary about his production which was great to hear.  I thank Mid Cheshire Musical Theatre Company for their kind hospitality and wish them all the best for the rest of their 2020 season.

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