Chris Eldon Lee reviews the revival of ‘I Don’t Want To Set The World On Fire’ which is at the New Vic In Newcastle Under Lyme until Saturday 24th of May 2014.
The very bedrock of the New Vic Theatre under the direction of the late Peter Cheeseman was the dozen documentary dramas about life in the Potteries. He’d send his actors out into the community to interview potters or railwayman or steel workers and make a musical out of what they said. And it’s a tribute to the confidence of the current Newcastle team that they feel they can revive one of his very best shows … with such bravado.
At the turn the 90s, Bob Eaton collected stories from the ‘Roses of Swynnerton’, the brave, unsung heroines who made World War Two munitions in a camouflaged ordnance campus outside Stoke. ROF Swynnerton was a ‘filling factory’ where 25,000 women risked their lives on a daily basis checking bullets and stuffing bombs without reward or glory. They were tough dames in tough days, suffering silently from mercury rash and cordite poisoning. Their enemies were sparks and moisture. Metal curlers were forbidden – and you might be missing your man, but if you shed a single tear into a tray of TNT, you’d never see him again.
Eaton’s script encompasses so many familiar themes; but uniquely seen from the close perspective of the women’s experiences. We already know the course of the wider war, but the dangerous detail of their working lives is a real eye opener. They would be sent to sit in the gunpowder store to listen intently for the tell tale hiss of its instability.
And he’s also unearthed the unexpected expediency of the times. I never knew that a girl might choose a chap by the depth of his Anderson Shelter.
In his hands, few words tell big stories and small silences speak volumes.
In amongst the jolly tunes and cheery chatter, he’s combined with director Conrad Nelson to create some beautifully touching scenes embracing powerful dilemmas – from the bitter sweetness of wartime romance to the morality of carpet bombing. The youngest recruit Lily (played from naivety to maturity by an ever so engaging Hannah Edwards) falls for Bernhart, a handsome Prisoner of War, only to learn that her bombs have destroyed his Dresden.
Eaton laces their language with mottos: “Careless Talk Costs Lives, So be like Dad, keep Mum” (or even – “Be Like Mum, Keep Dad!”) and dots their dialogue with the songs of Vera, Gracie and Noel.
The entire cast sings and plays twenty-five wonderfully authentic and evocative one-minute numbers, which seem to pop up every 90 seconds.
They range from the telling title tune to the rare revue send-up “I’m One of the Whitehall Warriors”. Musical director Malcolm Newton has coached some exquisite close harmony Beverley Sister style numbers and encouraged the largely female brass section to really let rip on “In The Mood”. Angela Bain, as the camp mechanic Renie, has great fun aping an American GI in “Don’t Fence Me In”, and ‘someone’ has really enjoyed localising the lyrics. I never knew Hanley and Stanley (as in Stanley Matthews) were mentioned in “Chatanooga Choo Choo”.
All in all it’s a wonderful three hours that really gets to the root of the unrecognised importance of ROF Swynnerton and the gutsy dedication of the remarkable women it employed in such extremis. Their parting shot was always “See you tomorrow – if…” And the saddest thing is that the ‘price of peace’ for these newly liberated ladies was to be returned to domestic duties.
I absolutely applaud The New Vic for doing this classic show again. And if Peter Cheeseman were still here, I’m sure he’d be applauding too.
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