Is it a travesty of an important Victorian industrial dispute, to
portray it as a musical? Particularly a
musical rooted in the music hall tradition?
Playwright Fatima Uygun doesn’t think so. She is one of a group of writers and
performers who have come together to produce
Strike a Light – a musical celebration of the 1888 Matchgirls
strike in the East End of London. This is premiering at The Steamie, a venue
within Glasgow’s Govanhill Baths as part of the Southside Fringe Festival.
Fatima says, “We have based this in a music hall, because it was a
working-class phenomena of the
time, especially in the East End where the Bryant & May factory was
situated.” One of her co-writers, Colin Poole is himself from the East End, and
both writers are keen to re-evaluate the image of music hall , and place it
firmly in working-class history.
The musical also taps into another interesting tradition, that of gender
identity, and in particular cross-dressing. The story is told by ‘Burlington
Bertie from Bow’ a popular music hall character, traditionally played by a
woman dressed as a man. It features both traditional music hall songs, later
songs in that tradition, and a number of new songs. New music was written for
the play by Gavin Livingstone (of the Stars Band) and Colin Poole. Another
writer (as well as an actor) is Jim Monaghan, who is both the Govanhill Baths
only employee, and a performance poet in his own right.
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| Match Girls 1888 |
The strike, in an industry overwhelmingly staffed by young women, was
started after an article by social reformer Annie Besant drew attention to the
conditions in the match industry. The use of toxic white phosphorus had
appalling health consequences for the workers, many of who contracted ‘phossy
jaw’. Bryant and May tried to get
the workforce to sign a denial of the accusations, and after one worker was
sacked – the strike started. Over 1400 workers were on strike by the end of the
first day! The strike lasted over two weeks and ultimately led to significant
improvements.
While this is the first strike recorded where the participants were
young women. Fatima is at pains the point out that they would not have been isolated
from the labour movement. Many of their families would have been dockers, and possibly
gas workers where industrial activity also took place around this time.
The show taps into a number of theatrical traditions apart from music
hall, using the Brechtian ‘play within a play’ device. It isn’t the first time
that the Matchgirls Strike has been made into a musical – The Matchgirls, by actor,
writer and director, Bill Owen – was put on in the West End in 1964.
Strike a Light, has enough
elements in it to ensure a further theatrical tradition is followed.
Didacticism is eschewed to ensure that, in John McGrath’s words; ‘a good night
out’ is had by all!
Strike a Light is on in The
Steamie, within the Govanhill Baths from Tuesday 19 – Saturday 23 May. Tickets
£10/£8 from brownpapertickets.
