{"id":507625,"date":"2025-10-17T20:03:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T20:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/507625\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T20:03:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T20:03:12","slug":"gwendas-garage-the-musical-tanya-moiseiwitsch-playhouse-sheffield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/507625\/","title":{"rendered":"Gwenda’s Garage The Musical – Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse, Sheffield"},"content":{"rendered":"

Book: Nicky Hallett<\/strong><\/p>\n

Music: Val Regan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lyrics: Val Regan with Nicky Hallett<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director: Jelena Budimir<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the opening page of the programme it states that this musical is \u201ccreated by an all-lesbian team\u201d and later refers to it as a \u201cqueer call to arms\u201d, so we must expect a propagandist element. Fortunately it remains entertaining, sporadically convincing and underpinned by music from a lively quintet.<\/p>\n

Out of the Archive is a Sheffield-based company which uncovers forgotten lives, especially those in LGBTQIA+ communities. The story they have uncovered here is that of Gwenda\u2019s Garage, operative in Sheffield in the 1980s. The garage was named for Gwenda Stewart, a pioneering motor racer who died in 1990 at the age of 95 and who actually was married three times. The women have been renamed from the originals and the story seems mainly fictional, though founded on memories of that bleak decade.<\/p>\n

Carol, Bev and Terry, all qualified mechanics, have been constantly turned down for jobs because of their gender, so finally take the plunge and set up in business on their own. Carol is the boss, straightforward, constantly worrying about holding it all together. Bev\u2019s main problem seems to be keeping a grip on her lover, Terry, who has tooth brushes all over Sheffield, but gradually it emerges that she would like to foster children and her lesbianism is a major difficulty. Terry\u2019s problem is one she can\u2019t hide: she\u2019s black.<\/p>\n

The apprentice, Dipstick, is played with winning charm by Lucy Mackay, but what overbalances the whole play is the ridiculous character of Feona, the posh married woman from Down South who develops a fixation on the garage and goes from one extreme to another. Georgina Coram, one suspects, is blameless: writer Nicky Hallett and director Jelena Budimir have given her an impossible task.<\/p>\n

There are three main themes. One is the rather tiresome increased involvement of Feona, but in compensation the difficulties of Bev are convincingly worked out. Nancy Brabin-Platt presents the problems of a lesbian who wants children (and will not get them if she admits her sexual inclinations) intelligently and sensitively. Then there is the reaction to Clause 28, Mrs Thatcher\u2019s attempt to curb the promotion of homosexuality which caused unnecessary fear and loathing in libraries, schools, etc., and did less than no good. The issues are presented clearly, but some of the response seems unnecessarily childish. At two extremes of the lesbian position council house owner Carol (Eva Scott) and Terry, cheerfully sleeping around (Sia Kiwa), register strongly, especially Scott who does much of the heavy lifting in this production.<\/p>\n

Most of the main characters have a solo number, all very effective, but not particularly memorable, but Val Regan can point a witty lyric (We Had a Scam) and enjoys herself mightily with some of the choruses (Get Your Hands Dirty and, above all, Welcome to Sheffield) performed with exuberant energy by the cast. Worth a mention in the band is drummer Liz Kitchen who also comes on for three (or was it four?) tiny parts \u2013 strange, but fun.<\/p>\n

Runs until 25 October 2025, then moves to Southwark Playhouse (30 October to 29 November).<\/strong><\/p>\n

\t\t\tThe Reviews Hub Star Rating<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Book: Nicky Hallett Music: Val Regan Lyrics: Val Regan with Nicky Hallett Director: Jelena Budimir On the opening…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8817],"tags":[748,393,166180,166181,4884,166182,166183,166184,166185,166186,166187,166188,166189,1620,166190,16,15,166191],"class_list":{"0":"post-507625","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sheffield","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-eva-scott","11":"tag-georgina-coram","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-gwenda-stewart","14":"tag-gwendas-garage","15":"tag-liz-kitchen","16":"tag-lucy-mackay","17":"tag-nancy-brabin-platt","18":"tag-nicky-hallett","19":"tag-out-of-the-archive","20":"tag-playhouse","21":"tag-sheffield","22":"tag-sia-kiwa","23":"tag-uk","24":"tag-united-kingdom","25":"tag-val-regan"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115391299919179589","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}