Made in Dagenham

“Made in Dagenham” is a show based on a film from fifteen years ago, then adapted for the stage in 2014. I have been aware of its existence for most of those years and knew what the background to the story was - I am old enough to remember the politics of the 1960s and the car workers’ strikes. I was certainly not aware of how satirical, funny and musically rich the writers of this piece had made this time of disputes into until earlier this year when I saw it for the first time. I was looking forward to a second helping of this well written show and I certainly was not disappointed on my visit to the Windmill Theatre.

The two opening numbers “Busy Woman” and “Made in Dagenham” gave this production an extremely strong base to build on for the rest of the action with tuneful and clear lyrics and comparatively busy choreography for the size of the stage. The singing for the ensemble numbers, as the solos and duets, was accompanied by a confident band of six musicians ably led by Kim Sheldon. The screen projections at the rear of the stage gave a good sense of size to the full cast scenes. Because of the nature of the story, costumes were normal day wear and uniforms so the clever way of the writers to provide some variety was to include an “American” scene with cheerleaders and glitzy costumes.

The main fictional family being portrayed was the O’Grady family - mother Rita (Saxona Lacey) and Eddie (Josh Martello) together with two young children, Graham and Sharon (Will & Hannah McAdams). The parents had much singing and dialogue from beginning to end and this was accomplished to perfection by the two stalwart actors chosen to take these exciting and demanding roles. “The Letter” was a very emotional and beautiful piece of singing and acting.

Rita’s four eclectic work colleagues were Clare (Lauren Ayling), Cass (Kelly Manchée),  Sandra Beaumont (Steph Sutherland) & Beryl (Ruth Roberts). These four individual characters were well portrayed and and gave credence to the work place environment.

Another two characters in the mix were Mr Hopkins (Jonathan Groves) and Lisa Hopkins (Marie Ball). Lisa, in particular,  had a very important part to play as she got to know the O’Grady family and became integral to the continuing and mainly successful ending with the appropriate song, “Stand up”.  Another two characters were Monty (Anthony Ledword) & Connie Riley (Justine Hargraves). Connie was also integral to the conclusion of the musical.  The final pair to mention are the serious but comedic characters of Harold Wilson (Stuart McAdams) & Barbara Castle (Victoria McClafferty). Her “Ideal World” song was yet another a highlight of the evening. Mr Tooley (Mark Roberts) was the American boss and had some good songs to lead in act two as well as performing much cunning skulduggery to deal with the striking workers.

My congratulations to the actors, backstage crew, musicians and production team for a thoroughly enjoyable production.  

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.