What The Women Did

In a weekend of short plays, this second selection of three were all written and first performed during the first world war. They are separate plays by three different playwrights, but they go together well, with wartime songs as a prelude and some linking ‘business’ between them. They successfully create a real sense of what it must have been like for the women back at home.

In the first, Luck of War by Gwen John, Ann’s husband George has been missing in action. She has moved on and re-married Amos, who her children now call dad. Her life is turned upside down when George turns up again. This was the most satisfying of the three for me, with great central performances by Victoria Gee and Simon Darwen.

Handmaidens of Death by Herbert Tremaine (in reality, Maude Deuchar) is set outside a munitions factory where women of all classes risk their lives without even knowing it. Single girls share their feelings about their ‘predicament’ and the likelihood of marriage after the war as one of their number sees her man go to the front. The second half is cleverly performed in black-out. I enjoyed the performances, particularly Susan Wooldridge as Mrs Herring the tea-shop owner, but it didn’t really go anywhere.

The Old Lady Shows her Medals, by J M (Peter Pan) Barrie no less, features Mrs Dowey who feels so out of it that she invents a son. It starts with war wives and mothers boasting of their respective relatives, but takes an unlikely turn when Mrs Dowey’s non-existent son turns up out of the blue! He ‘adopts’ her so that she can continue her fantasy, until another turn of events makes it ever so real. Again, Susan Wooldridge and Simon Darwen impress as Mrs Dowey and her ‘son’.

It’s not the plays themselves, but the combination, that makes for a satisfying evening. By fringe standards, they’ve gone to a lot of trouble to build a big set (Alex Marker) and find excellent period costumes (Emily Stuart) and there’s an adult cast of 14 plus two children. I loved the scene-setting singing and the changes of tone of the plays themselves. A timely revival and a very worthwhile project from Two’s Company and director Tricia Thorns.