Made in Dagenham

This was our summer musical in 2022, a great return to the stage after the previous two years.

Noda came to see us and gave us a great review!

They even awarded the show an Accolade of Excellence!

Here's some photos from the show, which is based on a real story about the women in the Ford factory in Dagenham in the 60s.

The girls are working hard at the Ford factory, sewing seats for the new Ford Cortina, until they discover that their work is being downgraded - they're considered to be unskilled workers. And women get paid less than the men anyway!

 The grievance turns into a strike, and it's everybody out, in the exciting fnale of Act 1!

 Their protest spreads, and attracts the attention of Barbara Castle, a Government minister. It was fun having a Ford Cortina on stage!

  In the end, their protest takes them as far as the TUC, where their motion that women should be paid equally to men is accepted as a policy.

 But of course it's not just about the women and the strike.

There's two families - Rita O'Grady who works at the factory with her husband to support their two children.

Mr Hopkins runs the factory, while his wife is frustrated by running the house instead of using her history degree. When she learns of the women's protest, she helps them any way she can.

The men work in the factory building the cars, including Eddy O'Grady, Rita's husband. When the strike threatens his job as well, the marriage is put under strain.

And of course no show is complete without a bad guy - in this case the American executive flown in to bust the strike, Mr Tooley, who appears in the spectacular musical number that opens Act 2.