Rouse, Ye Women

Submitted by OldFireStation on October 26, 2018 - 10:33

Venue, Timing and Cost

Venue: 
The Old Fire Station
Date(s): 
Tuesday, 2 April 2019 to Wednesday, 3 April 2019
Timing: 
7.30pm
Cost: 
£12/£10

A new folk opera about Mary Macarthur and the women chainmakers.

In 1910 the women chainmakers of Cradley Heath focussed the world’s attention on the plight of Britain’s low-paid women workers involved in the ‘home-working sweated industries’, hammering out chain-links in sheds in the backyards of their homes with their babies and children for 5 shillings (25p) for a 50-hour week.

Led by the charismatic union organiser and campaigner, Mary Reid Macarthur, hundreds of women laid down their tools to strike for a living wage.

The success of the ten-week strike more than doubled their earnings and helped to make the principle of a national minimum wage a reality.

Through rousing traditional songs and moving ballads, Townsend Theatre Productions reveals the horrors of sweated labour, Mary Macarthur’s stunning national campaign to expose the perpetrators of this appalling employment, the universal sympathy for the workers, the flood of donations, and the events that led to a final victory.

★★★★ ‘A powerful story, powerfully told.’ – The Observer on We Are The Lions, Mr Manager!

Guardian readers top favourite shows 2017: We Are The Lions, Mr Manager!

★★★★★“Quite simply the best political theatre produced for a long, long time” – The Morning Star on dare Devil Rides To Jarama

Further Information

Performance
Theatre