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Auld acquaintance being remembered with Laura Matthews as Dotty and Katherine Senior as Bett. Pictures: Ant Robling Spitfire Girls Birmingham Rep **** There are no winners in war, even the victors are scarred, a generation of survivors surrounded by ghosts and memories, loves and losses, all living in a past that refuses to fade. We open on New Year's Eve 1959, fourteen years after the end of WWII, a lifetime ago for some, or just yesterday for the likes of Bett, putting the final touches to decorations in her pub, The Spitfire, ready to open her doors to customers. You get the feeling New Year's Eve is more a trial than a celebration for Bett, so a visit from younger sister Dotty is more than a relief, it is an escape as they can reminisce and relive their past as Attagirls. The Attagirls. The 168 women who were the RAF's flying squad of delivery drivers, flying everything from the tiny Tiger Moth training aircraft to the giant four-engined Lancasters and Flying Fortresses. It was dangerous work flying often unfamiliar aircraft, some 147 different types the records show, both new from the factory to their bases, or damaged or malfunctioning planes back for repair, flying at low heights, in any weather, unarmed and defenceless, with no radio and relying on little more than roadmaps and a compass for navigation, flying solo even in aircraft such as heavy bombers which, without gunners, had a normal operational crew of five.
Jack Hulland as Dad Sixteen women were to die in the service, including famed aviator Amy Johnson, lost when the Airspeed Oxford she was flying crashed into the Thames estuary. The impending arrival of 1960 is forgotten as the reunited sisters relive memories and are back on the family farm in the dark days of WWII with an advertisement asking for volunteers for the Air Transport Auxiliary. Signed, sealed and delivered and . . . successful much to the chagrin of Dad. Katherine Senior, who wrote the play, is a matter of fact Bett while Laura Matthews is a more impetuous Dotty, setting the scene for what was to come with the more serious, more responsible Bett looking out for her more adventurous, more impetuous younger sibling, while Jack Hulland as Dad is a somewhat cantankerous pig farmer attempting to impose a will that no longer carries any weight on daughters who have outgrown being his little girls. He is to claim they are needed to run (unpaid) the family farm, an essential job in wartime, yet you feel that is a shield, his real concern not being for free labour but the safety of his daughters, keeping them close by, at home, away from danger. No parent wants to lose a child to war perhaps best summed up with his sad declaration that war is a thief, stealing the youth of our children with no intention of ever giving it back. Although never stated you get the feeling dad is haunted by his own ghosts of the last war and does not want his daughters to have their own ghosts to contend with. In charge of the Attagirls is their CO, a serious and sympathetic Kirsty Cox, who also gives us fellow pilot Joy to make up a trio of fun and gin and tonics. There may not be the danger of combat that spurns inhibition in bomber crews and fighter pilots but ferrying planes had its own dangers every day with enemy aircraft waiting to pounce, unknown and even unreliable aircraft to fly and unpredictable weather.
Kirsty Cox as Joy and Samuel Tracy as Jimmy The uncertainty of war, every day a game of Russian roulette, drives emotions which brings in Tom, Flt Sgt Tom, dashing fighter pilot who falls for . . . well that would be telling. Samuel Tracy is the happy go lucky Tom, living that precarious life between grim and glamour, falling for the girls who in turn fall for him. Tracy also pops up as Jimmy, the bartender, who serves the Attagirls at their base, a lone man struggling a little in a woman's world. Tom's is only one love story, a second of sorts is Bett's for her younger sister, and her younger sister's for her, and then there is Dotty's love of flying, the freedom of the blue skies, all brought back to life on a rainswept December 31 in 1959. And all brought back down to earth again by pub regular, and you suspect far less regularly sober, Frank, played again by Hulland. Frank brings everything back to . . . the end of 1959. You feel he has a past with its own ghosts, a past we never discover, but with a perception that sees through the alcoholic haze. New Year is far from a new beginning for Bett. The Attagirls were among the unsung heroes of war. It has taken a long time, and changing attitudes, to belatedly recognise the part women played in the world conflicts of the last century. In past culture and films they were seen as jolly souls in ATS canteen caravans handing out tea and sympathy to the brave lads, or tearfully plotting bomber raids in RAF operations rooms. It has taken a long time, and a change of attitude for the belated recognition of the unsung roles women took on in WWII, roles such as the 80,000 who served in the land army, and the 168 Attagirls who represented almost 15 per cent of the ATA's complement of 1,152 pilots. They were paid 20 per cent less than the male pilots but thanks to their Commander, Pauline Gower, on which the play's commander is based, they became the first in Britain to receive equal pay for their work alongside men. The play creates a telling drama in its own right, a story of courage, of the camaraderie of war, of love and loss, fear and fortitude, and, beyond that it is a fitting tribute to the women who played a vital part in the war effort with little recognition. Senior's script is beautifully written, a mix of humour and poignancy, which, along with Seán Aydon’s direction moves effortlessly from past to present and back again with the ensemble cast creating aircraft, offices, dance halls and farms and moving the minimal set in seamless choreography from Stephen Moynihan. Sarah Beaton's set is a fine example of what inspired simplicity can achieve. A simple raised hexagonal platform as the stage, dominated by a central RAF roundel, with desks, bars, chairs carried on and off, and Peter Small's atmospheric lighting allied to Stephen Moynihan's sound design to set each scene. The result is a lovely production, standing on its own two feet as a drama while highlighting a moment of history that deserves to be finally recognised. Incidentally, the show programme, a Picture Post lookalike, (ask grandparents) is an extremely well put together publication and an interesting and informative read. The Spitfire Girls will be flying high to 21-06-25. Roger Clarke 16-06-25 |
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