REVIEW
✭✭✭✭☆ 4/5
Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch
Billet Lane
Hornchurch |
RM11 1QT
The Invincibles
– A World Premier
14th September 2023
✭✭✭✭☆ 4/5
Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch
Billet Lane
Hornchurch |
RM11 1QT
The Invincibles
– A World Premier
14th September 2023
It is 1917, WW1 is in full flow and most of the men are away fighting. A group of women doing war work at the Sterling Factory, Dagenham, decide they want to start a football team to raise money for the wounded soldiers.
With the England women’s football team recently playing in the World Cup final, an all-female team seems nothing unusual. However, in that period a woman playing football was considered appalling and not at all a suitable game for nice, young women. However, they could be skivvies working in households or doing heavy jobs in factories.
Known as the Invincibles, the team playing for the love of the game, had an unbeaten run, and like the Lionesses of today, were the poster girls of the time. However, by 1921, the authorities were becoming uncomfortable. As money was no longer raised for wounded soldiers, but channelled into good causes for the working class, it was deemed anti-establishment. Using complaints about women playing such a manly game as an excuse, they were banned from playing on FIFA affiliated grounds, which effectively put a stop to the women’s game. Until the ban, women’s teams around the country had even more success with gates of over 53,000 fans. The ban was to last for 51 years.
Amanda Whittington's play The Invincibles celebrates two generations of inspirational women, and their adventures on the football pitch a century apart. It is premiered at the Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch, and for anyone following the Lionesses it is a must see. It has laughter, drama, singing and live guitar music. She has cleverly woven the play with the 2023 Lionesses’ football triumph into the scenario of the 1917 creation of the Sterling Invincibles.
There is a spiritual connection between the generations. A typical surly teenager Maya (well-played by Yanexi Enriquez) sits with her face clamped to her mobile phone cheering on the Lionesses, much to her mother’s annoyance. Meanwhile, in 1917, the girls are arguing with a bullying father (Steve Simmonds) to be allowed to play. Only a small number of the women perform in the play, with a slight back-story of Nell (a good characterisation by Eleanor Kane) who is from the East End, and boarded with the family. She is the driving force behind the football team and is the 1917 equivalent of the 2023 surly Maya.
The factory manager (Cholly), a nice sympathetic performance by Simon Darwen is coerced into being their manager. He trains the team and they go on to win every match. The actual football playing is brilliantly conveyed by the women running around the bare stage revolve, enacting the moves as Cholly narrates at the side of the stage. At the same time, we hear the commentary of the 2023 women’s world cup final, cheered on by Maya on the opposite side. As the commentary evolves, the choreography of the players matches the narration. There are goals scored, tackles, and penalties, which is an incredibly interesting watch in dumb show. This clever construction I believe was the creation of the Movement Director, Lucie Pankhurst.
This production is an interesting concept; however, I would have liked to have more of the back-story of the individual girls and their relationships. The play consists mainly of the achievements of the football team.
It is quite pertinent when one of the players states that when the men come home they will change from the 'invincibles' to the invisibles. They did indeed fade into obscurity. I was brought up in Dagenham and have never heard of them or the Sterling factory. However, I have never heard so many familiar places referred to since Dudley Moore and Peter Cook’s Dagenham Dialogues.
The Invincibles celebrates both the Lionesses’ epic summer adventure, and the pioneering women who played their heart out a century before.
There is also a small exhibition in the theatre foyer of memorabilia, exploring the development of women’s football from the Victorian era to the Women’s World Cup of 2023. Items dating from the turn of the century to present day are on display, including items from the women’s football legend Lizzy Ashcroft Collection and the personal collection of her grandson the historical consultant, to the play, Steve Bolton.
Review – Jacquee Storozynski-Toll
The play continues:-
15 – 23 Sep 23- 7.30 Matinees Thurs & Sat 2.30pm
Prices
£19* - £29* | Under 26s £8
*+65p
Box Office Team on 01708 443333 or email [email protected]
With the England women’s football team recently playing in the World Cup final, an all-female team seems nothing unusual. However, in that period a woman playing football was considered appalling and not at all a suitable game for nice, young women. However, they could be skivvies working in households or doing heavy jobs in factories.
Known as the Invincibles, the team playing for the love of the game, had an unbeaten run, and like the Lionesses of today, were the poster girls of the time. However, by 1921, the authorities were becoming uncomfortable. As money was no longer raised for wounded soldiers, but channelled into good causes for the working class, it was deemed anti-establishment. Using complaints about women playing such a manly game as an excuse, they were banned from playing on FIFA affiliated grounds, which effectively put a stop to the women’s game. Until the ban, women’s teams around the country had even more success with gates of over 53,000 fans. The ban was to last for 51 years.
Amanda Whittington's play The Invincibles celebrates two generations of inspirational women, and their adventures on the football pitch a century apart. It is premiered at the Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch, and for anyone following the Lionesses it is a must see. It has laughter, drama, singing and live guitar music. She has cleverly woven the play with the 2023 Lionesses’ football triumph into the scenario of the 1917 creation of the Sterling Invincibles.
There is a spiritual connection between the generations. A typical surly teenager Maya (well-played by Yanexi Enriquez) sits with her face clamped to her mobile phone cheering on the Lionesses, much to her mother’s annoyance. Meanwhile, in 1917, the girls are arguing with a bullying father (Steve Simmonds) to be allowed to play. Only a small number of the women perform in the play, with a slight back-story of Nell (a good characterisation by Eleanor Kane) who is from the East End, and boarded with the family. She is the driving force behind the football team and is the 1917 equivalent of the 2023 surly Maya.
The factory manager (Cholly), a nice sympathetic performance by Simon Darwen is coerced into being their manager. He trains the team and they go on to win every match. The actual football playing is brilliantly conveyed by the women running around the bare stage revolve, enacting the moves as Cholly narrates at the side of the stage. At the same time, we hear the commentary of the 2023 women’s world cup final, cheered on by Maya on the opposite side. As the commentary evolves, the choreography of the players matches the narration. There are goals scored, tackles, and penalties, which is an incredibly interesting watch in dumb show. This clever construction I believe was the creation of the Movement Director, Lucie Pankhurst.
This production is an interesting concept; however, I would have liked to have more of the back-story of the individual girls and their relationships. The play consists mainly of the achievements of the football team.
It is quite pertinent when one of the players states that when the men come home they will change from the 'invincibles' to the invisibles. They did indeed fade into obscurity. I was brought up in Dagenham and have never heard of them or the Sterling factory. However, I have never heard so many familiar places referred to since Dudley Moore and Peter Cook’s Dagenham Dialogues.
The Invincibles celebrates both the Lionesses’ epic summer adventure, and the pioneering women who played their heart out a century before.
There is also a small exhibition in the theatre foyer of memorabilia, exploring the development of women’s football from the Victorian era to the Women’s World Cup of 2023. Items dating from the turn of the century to present day are on display, including items from the women’s football legend Lizzy Ashcroft Collection and the personal collection of her grandson the historical consultant, to the play, Steve Bolton.
Review – Jacquee Storozynski-Toll
The play continues:-
15 – 23 Sep 23- 7.30 Matinees Thurs & Sat 2.30pm
Prices
£19* - £29* | Under 26s £8
*+65p
Box Office Team on 01708 443333 or email [email protected]