Set in the grimy depths of Edwardian Deptford, The Gut Girls was unexpectedly one of the best theatre shows I have seen, easily rivalling the productions staged on the West End.
The six strong-spirited, feisty women slog for 13 hours a day in the cattle quarters, artfully removing the offal, entails and entrails of meat before it is fit for the butchers.
Their mouths are as sharp as the knives they use; often a defence mechanism to taunts that they’re lower in class than the common whores who run the night.
Wonderfully original in plot, the play launches into the hustle and bustle of cockney London life with Annie (Emma Laura Canning) starting her first day at the gutting sheds.
Only 16, innocent and a little naïve, she struggles to stomach all the blood, flesh and guts which is ‘enough to stagger a horse’, but the other five quickly take her under their wings and the girls all laugh and joke despite their gruesome work.
It is then that Aristocrat Lady Helena visits the girls, inviting them to her ladies club to teach them manners, etiquette, sewing and readings from the Bible to better their prospects should they find alternative employment as maids or nannies.
In a twist of irony, the girls keep saying that as long as there are meat eaters, they would have jobs and they laugh off the ‘barmy idea that people will only eat vegetables’ in the future.
And as if on queue, when Maggie (Caitlin Innes Edwards) the oldest, unmarried member of the group resists the advances of Edwin, Lady Helena’s associate, he vows to have her removed from her post after she threatens him with a knife.
All the girls are laid off but those who attended the ladies club are given good references but Maggie, who failed to go, struggles to find work and does the only thing she can to survive – by marrying bar landlord Len.
Once the women are no longer ‘the gut girls’, their friendship declines, their strong, independent and somewhat feminist nature seems to crumble and they pass one another on the street like strangers, fearing for their jobs and improved reputations.
The Gut Girls masterly depicts the struggles of the social classes, the plight of women against their masters, the dim future they face if they fail to marry and it also highlights the political and religious thoughts of the day.
Performed at a converted chapel, The Space Theatre in the Isle of Dogs, the actors were faultless, the stage and audience seating area were used to maximum effect, making it seem we were part of the show and the change of scenes were seamless.
All the actors proved themselves on the opening night, but hats off to Kate Craggs who played cockney Ellen as well as Lady Priscilla, Emma Laura Canning, the lead of Annie and Catherine Thorncombe, who played Emily and Edna.
The show led my emotions perfectly, from tears at the moment when Annie reveal’s she was raped by her master’s son, to tears of laughter as the girls mimic the sounds of tea being poured in a role-play exercise at the ladies club.
Vividly entertaining, expertly executed, The Gut Girls should aim much higher than that of a fringe production. I certainly won’t forget this show.
The Gut Girls, a Rum and Monkey production by Sarah Daniels and directed by David England, runs till Saturday 25 May. Tickets (£14/£10) can be bought from www.space.org.uk or by calling the Box Office: 0207 515 7799.