5 – 6 April
The avowed aim of Townsend Theatre Productions is ‘to focus on the lives and contributions of inspirational and pivotal figures from our social and labour history’, and in Neil Gore they have a playwright and song writer who most certainly wears his political allegiances on his sleeve. Yes! Yes! UCS! is a wonderfully affirmative title for a play that is imbued with passion and pride for the seven-month ‘work-in’ by Upper Clyde Shipbuilders that saved their shipyards from closure. This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of their achievement, and at a time when a major ferry company can dismiss 800 workers without warning, this is surely a story that needs to be told again.
Shipbuilding is an industry with a distinctly masculine image, and all the key figures in the work-in were men, but here their story is told by two young women office-workers, who intersperse the narrative with songs. Of the two, Geraldine Edson, known as ‘Eddy’ (Heather Gourdie), is the more politically savvy. She has ambitions to be an artist, but her father has persuaded her to get a ‘real’ job, and she works in a drawing office. The other woman, Aggie McGraw (Janie Thompson), is a gauche, wide-eyed newcomer to the shipyards who has hardly settled into her job in stock control before she learns that the Heath government is going to close the shipyards down.
Gourdie plays the confident, assertive Eddy with a swagger. This is someone who knows what’s what and is prepared to stand up for herself. She has surely inherited her assertiveness from her uncompromising father, who she quotes as saying, ‘You’re either in the Communist Party, or the Tupperware Party’. In contrast, Thomson portrays Aggie as more than a little naïve, and initially quite overwhelmed by the vastness and the noise of the shipyard. Alex Harvey’s Hammer Song is employed to great effect to convey the hard physicality of that environment. It is Aggie’s growing awareness of political realities, and her eventual blossoming as a fundraiser that forms the main narrative thread of the play. Both actors inhabit their roles with total conviction and sing beautifully.
They perform against a backdrop of very clever animations by Scarlett Rickard and Jonny Halifax. There is also archive material featuring, amongst others, the charismatic and media-savvy trade union activist Jimmy Reid, and Prime Minister Edward Heath. Particularly memorable is Reid’s impassioned demand of his compatriots that their work-in should characterised by its dignity: ‘No hooliganism, no vandalism, and no bevvying’. That last request was surely made more in hope than expectation. In contrast, Ted Heath’s plummy platitudes sound as if he came from another planet, as indeed, was the case.
Among this show’s highlights there is a particularly imaginative delivery of the song Pack Up Your Tools And Go! that makes clever use of a music sequencer, creating an increasingly complex backing track. And in a play that at times tends to be too strident and shouty, there is a quieter and very moving scene where Eddy, finishing a portrait of her recently departed father, seeks to come to terms with some unresolved parent-child issues.
Directed very ably by Louise Townsend, Yes! Yes! UCS! offers much to enjoy. It has two very engaging characters, rousing songs, and an important tale to tell. But it is a touch over-long, and at times the dialogue is too didactic, too close to pamphleteering. This tendency to be over-earnest is reflected in the less than snappy title of one of the scenes: ‘At the Tate and Lyle Factory, Liverpool, to address women workers to fundraise for the Fighting Fund.’ However, this is a lively, dynamic show that undoubtedly has its heart in the right place, and many in last night’s audience at the Alma Tavern responded to it with whoops and hollers of approval.
★★★★☆ Mike Whitton 6th April
