When faced with 240 redundancies, the women of the Lee Jeans factory in Greenock came together in a landmark strike – to take on The Man. And they won.
Now the Inverclyde town is set to celebrate their achievement 45 years on with the grand finale of a touring stage version of their story.
Stand & Deliver: The Lee Jeans Sit-In brings the curtain up on the National Theatre of Scotland’s tale of the women who occupied the factory for seven months when their US owners tried to offload their jobs to Northern Ireland, having exhausted Scottish subsidies.
The play, featuring River City’s Jo Freer and Department Q’s Aron Dochard, has seen theatre-goers lap up the defiance of the Greenock women – and men – whose wildcat dispute became an internationally celebrated display of militant mettle.
And its retelling on stage as a barnstorming musical has its roots in our sister paper, the Daily Record.
View 3 ImagesWorkers Catherine and Margaret join forces again for reunion in 2016(Image: Tony Nicoletti)
It was after meeting strikers Maggie Wallace and Catherine Robertson for an interview for the Record around a reunion disco in 2016 that I approached the National Theatre of Scotland with a stage show concept.
It had everything. They adapted the lyrics of pop songs to suit their cause, hanging the words on the wall to sing together and sustain morale.
They climbed out of the skylight and shinned down the drainpipe to get past the police, returning with hundreds of fish suppers, tipping off the media.
They rewired phones, made impressions of keys in soap and burned their redundancy letters, all while challenging their nervous London union to back their battle.
Shipyard workers donated cash to help the women sustain their fight.
The experience was also a personal awakening for many of the factory girls, teens whose confidence grew as they toured Britain speaking at rallies.
Ten years later, having teamed up with the play’s writer Frances Poet, the story is finally coming home to Inverclyde, told now from the setting of an Inverclyde social club.
View 3 ImagesStand & Deliver has been a huge hit(Image: Mihaela Bodlovic)
For actor Aron expectation is high. He said: “We’ve been bowled over by the reaction from the audience. It’s not typical theatre crowds – people cheering through shows. It’s been mind-blowing.
“A sold-out audience in the Beacon is going to be absolutely mad, real true-story political theatre, for people who know all the references, and some who were there. I can’t wait.”
Jo Freer plays shop steward and figurehead Helen Monaghan, who became a labour movement pillar.
Now 90, Helen has seen the show twice, and will join celebrations with many of the workers, on Tuesday and Wednesday. She’s as spirited now as she was then. Speaking to actors of the recently cancelled River City at the show’s opening night at Glasgow’s Tron, she joked that they should have occupied BBC studios.
Jo said: “It’s a career highlight playing Helen, but daunting. There are some really emotional moments. I kept crying during rehearsal. It’s been a privilege to tell her story.”
Initially, Helen shied away from recognition, in case they thought her a troublemaker. Even now, she ensures the spotlight doesn’t fall only on her.
“Every one of them deserves recognition,” she said. “I was only as brave as them. It’s great to have the story told of what all the women did.”
The cast, including Chiara Sparkes, Hannah Jarret Scott, Madeline Greive and Shonagh Murray, perform with the energy of a manufacturing plant at full tilt, singing, acting, and playing instruments. At one show in Glasgow’s Tron theatre, a row of older men from the Lodging House Mission clapped, stamped and cheered.
They’d been at a theatre workshop at the Tron that day, and one told me how he was moved to tears. “I saw myself there on that factory floor,” he said, referring to a scene when sound and light trickery make the audience think they’re seeing a trolley boy.
“I was terrified, just out of school, working with these older women. But I loved it.”
For Maggie Wallace, seeing her teen self depicted with all the anarchy of her time among the so-called mischievous ‘dirty dozen’ is bittersweet.
“The story has been in a box at the back of our minds for years, and now that it’s been brought back out it’s brilliant, especially because younger ones are learning about it,” said Maggie. “We did something good.
“It’s amazing how six actors have managed to tell the story. Greenock will be rocking. We’re over the moon about it.”
What would Maggie Wallace of 1981 think?
She said: “If I told her there’d be a play about it in years to come she’d say, ‘Aye, that’ll be right.’ But she’d be proud. She grew up through the sit-in. She was a loose cannon, but she done good in the end.”
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