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Laura Matthews as Dotty and Katherine Senior as Bett. Picture: Robling Photography) Spitfire Girls Derby Theatre ***** This is a story with which I was already familiar. I always thought it would make a good drama and Tilted Wig and MAST productions have done it proud It features two female lead roles, itself a rarity, two sisters Dotty and Bett played by Laura Mathews and Katherine Senior opening in the Spitfire pub in 1959. Betty starts to reminisce. They had applied to be pilots with the ATA (Air Transport Auxiliary) whose role it was to deliver (fly) new aircraft to their new home airfields. Simply qualified as pilots, the young women were then tasked with flying whatever they were given, could be a Spitfire, Hurricane, Lysander, Mosquito , or Lancaster without navigational aids or radios, simply using the lie of the land. Sarah Beaton’s simple set enables them to recreate their flying exploits in convincing style. Although it was a serious, responsible role, of course girls just wanna have fun and there is plenty of that too alongside sibling rivalry, and love, bright red lipstick and very stylish flying jackets. Wardrobe should keep an eye on those! Director Sean Aydon adeptly enters the drama through the big lens of the well-known story of the second world war before zooming in on the micro story of Betty and Dotty. Katherine Senior’s script skilfully presents gender equality as fact, not hectoring politics. Eamon O Dwyers sound is atmospheric, nostalgic, but never intrusive or overly sentimental. It is also subtly on point. An atmospheric musical interlude borrows from Brian Eno’s Music for Airports Dot evocatively sings an excerpt from The Trolley Song, made famous by forces favourite Judy Garland in Meet me in St Louis in 1944. The relationship between Dotty and Betty is neatly developed, yet it also explores the sheer joy and exhilaration of the freedom of flying. Stephen Moynihan succeeds in keeping a small cast visually fluid around the stage. Incredibly Peter Small’s lighting is searchlight free! The social history of the time is remarkable. Around a million British men died in World War I. So for World War II only twenty years later, physical manpower was reduced, an entire tranche of men who would have been experienced, skilled workers, managers and husbands did not exist , and there was work which needed to be done. Betty and Dot’s father laments the absence of help on the farm precipitated by their flying. I well remember in the 1960s seeing my Aunty Joan’s fingers stained yellow from cordite while working in an ammunition factory. How they coped with being shunted out of work to allow the men to return and work I do not know. Bett and her sister, Dot join the ATA at the same time, much to the ire of their father. We follow their exploits in love and war, all remembered by the pair many years later, on the eve of 1960 in the Spitfire pub in which the play opens. Zany Dot embodies the can- do British bulldog , devil -may -care, spirit, While all five players are excellent, the two sisters are the key characters.. Dot shines the brightest. Dot is a fun, can-do girl who can handle anything almost to the point of recklessness. She draws everyone into her world, including her older, more serious sister. Jack Hulland plays Frank, the amiable pub drunk, pestering Bett to serve him another drink. Samuel Tracey plays Jimmy, who captures the romantic interest of both women who is a lightning rod for the seismic shift in gender mores. Kirsty Cox plays a kleptomaniac who would wreak havoc at a Primark today. The show is a tight 2 hours 10 minutes including interval , inevitably the second half , after the women are trained, is pacier than the first. Matthews as Bett is sensational. She has written the script, she sings, she dances and she captivates. Spitfire Girls soars until Saturday 12th April at Derby then leaves for a nationwide tour. Gary Longden 09-04-25 |
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