“…an uplifting story of women overcoming adversity… against the systems that exploit them…”
Cast of The Ladies Football Club (Photo by Johan Persson)
The Ladies Football Club by Stefano Massini adapted by Tim Firth, Crucible Sheffield
By Phil Scown
Jazz plays while we wait for the start of act one. It seems at odds with both the subject of the play and the era of the Great War. Perhaps it’s the theme of organised chaos that makes the jazz relevant, though we don’t hear it again once the action starts. The set at the back of the stage is an array of thirty lights on a grey background. It’s not obviously football related, but it becomes a versatile asset once the story begins.
It’s 1917. The Great War has taken all the fit and able men and sent them to the Front. Women have replaced them in the factories. The women in this story all work in a Sheffield munitions factory. Some of the bombs they make are football shaped. News from the Front is grim, the football news less so. Camaraderie keeps the women cheerful and binds them together. It’s no surprise that the ladies take to the game of football. They form their own team, and are soon engaged in matches against other teams, both men’s and women’s.
The script is fast, funny, and often foul. These women do swear a lot. I don’t know if that’s accurate for a Sheffield munitions factory during the Great War, or if it’s anachronistic, but it works. We laugh along, we root for the team. The cast, a team of eleven ladies plus ensemble, each have their own role to play, their individual contribution to make. Violet (Cara Theobold) is the charismatic leader, who grew up on Corker St with her friend Rosalyn (Jessica Baglow) always put in goal by her brothers, but that stands her in good stead. There’s Justine (Anne Odeke) the single, liberated woman in a factory of women whose husbands are at war. Abigail (Charley Webb) timid and prescient, doesn’t want to play, but does. Olivia (Bettrys Jones) with her encyclopaedic collection of knowledge and sayings, gleaned from the stock of the family newsagents. Cheryl (Krupa Pattani) represents invisible women. Penelope (Chanel Waddock) talks ‘penelopese’ that no one else can understand. Briana (Ellie Leach) feels herself to be the embodiment of Joan of Arc. Berenice (Lesley Hart) the not so sober daughter of a Scottish minister provides irreverent commentary on men. Hayley (Leah Brotherhead) is the militant lefty, plays left wing, and brings overtly political themes to the story. Last, but not least, is Melanie (Clair Norris) the big, dour, left back. I think that’s right, apologies if I’ve crossed my wires.
Cast of The Ladies Football Club (Photo by Johan Persson)
Sport is always difficult for the choreography department. Showing dynamic action and fast moving objects convincingly is tricky. Some matches are shown in slo-mo. It is more engaging when the ball is not present, showing the movement of the players. The trajectory of a moving ball is tricky to convey. The matches, with a real leather football, are dynamic. Goals are scored, there are fouls. Goals are disallowed, due to the ever-cursed offside infraction. These women know their limits and there is no attempt to explain the offside rule.
There is a problem with the sound. It isn’t always possible to catch every word of dialogue. There were no obvious microphones on the cast, maybe that is the cause of the problem. This may benefit aesthetics, and make movement easier, but those gains are at the expense of clear dialogue.
Despite the set’s initial plain appearance, the lighting department (Ben Jacobs) puts it to good use. The grey background is used as a canvas onto which is projected the workings of the factory, broader cityscapes, pitch positions and goal posts. With the choreography, we are moved to different locations.
The Ladies Football Club is an uplifting story of women overcoming adversity, coming together as a team, a team united against the systems that exploit them. Politics is shown to be bound up with work and play. Bosses support the women when it is politic to do so, but only when it serves them. The capitalist system exploits them at work. The patriarchal system exploits them both at work and at play, putting men above them whenever it can. The final whistle blows for the Ladies Football Team with the end of the war. Their jobs are taken from them, and the FA withdraws its support. We already knew how the story would end. It’s only in recent years, a century after the events of the story, that women’s football has burgeoned and been supported. The play closes with a life history of each of the women and their lifetime achievements, and the handing of the baton to present-day girls who will take that baton, run with it and play with all the enthusiasm of their great, great grandmothers who broke the ground.
Cast of The Ladies Football Club (Photo by Johan Persson)
The Ladies Football Club plays at Crucible Sheffield until Saturday 28 March. Tickets are available here.
Phil Scown has been a regular theatre-goer since his student days many years ago. Mysteries, thrillers, ghost stories, comedies and musicals are all part of his theatre diet. Phil writes short stories in a variety of genres, some of which have become screenplays. He likes to tour England, Scotland and France, nowadays by car rather than motorcycle. At other times Phil likes to cook and to drive his Caterham, though generally not at the same time.
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