Made in Dagenham

The show opened in a sea of industrial mist! With the set being made up of two sets of railings with an upper floor and ground floor, this clever staging was put to good use, although the kitchen area of the O’Grady’s house could have been made a little more of.

Rita O’Grady was believable from the start and had a fine singing voice, she had what it took to see things through and commanded the stage with confidence, showing emotion, anger and tenderness where needed! Being a working class wife and mother in the 60’s it was not easy to take up a cause and fight for it as well as carrying out her work commitments and her domestic “duties “and she and her husband Eddie portrayed those difficulties convincingly and with great feeling, their two children Graham and Sharon both put on shiny performances!

  Eddie O’Grady who showed understanding for his wife in her fight to speak up and fight on and struggled to reconcile her new persona with the Rita he loved, torn between his loyalty to her and the “lads” he worked alongside. He had a great voice and played his role with conviction and empathy.        

The factory girls were simply great with their individual characterisations and did themselves credit. Beryl played her part with enthusiasm, swearing with every sentence, she made the role her own. Brilliant stuff!

Clare, Sandra and Cass gave great performances, allowing their individual characters, each with their own problems, to show through and supporting Rita all the way.

Harold Wilson was faithfully portrayed (for those of us old enough to remember) and had some super witty lines that he made sure he didn’t waste. He was so good that I didn’t realise until after the show he was also the Cortina man!

 Barbara Castle did so well in getting to the real person (see comment re Harold Wilson) She gave it her all and sang “Ideal World” with great gusto and feeling!

Mr Tooley, the American executive had great stage presence and gave a strong performance, portraying his complete lack of understanding about British industry in his song “This is America” which was expertly delivered and made us all wonder however our Anglo/American alliance was ever formed!

Monty the kindly, but a bit weak, union steward who wanted to please everyone, acted well particularly in his scene with the dying Connie when it emerged that he had loved her for years.

 Connie Riley did well and was a strong character persuading Rita to go to the TUC conference on her behalf, but maybe there could have been more build up attached to Connie’s illness and death!

Jeremy Hopkins played a typical Managing Director of the time. He came over well, wanting an easy life and a submissive wife, Lisa, who rebelled by supporting Rita’s campaign despite initial suspicion from the workers. She showed her sadness with her own relationship, but also great strength, in breaking free and bonding with Rita, lending her a dress for her TUC presentation. Her       portrayal was excellent!

Mr Buckton the teacher unfortunately could not be heard. There must have been some technical problem with the throat mikes! It was the first night and I am sure this would have been rectified for the following performances.

I must mention the smoke machine which was used to create the smoky and industrial atmosphere in a factory in the 60’s, but I thought it was overused and also overdone spilling over into the audience Again, the first night and maybe rectified as the week progressed.

 

The choreography and the Band were excellent you could hear the dialogue and songs clearly (with the exception of poor Mr Buckton) The supporting actors in various roles succeeded in giving all the characters individuality and supported the leads excellently.  Congratulations to all involved in this show! An excellent portrayal of an historical event and really good entertainment

Graham Liverton 

Regional Councillor NODA Southwest

 

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.