Notes from The Gut Girls

Dave Wheeler is one of several members who trod the boards at The Playhouse as an amateur and eventually decided to go and train and turn professional. He still keeps his hand in down here when time permits – he was last seen as Chairman/Charles Warren in Jack the Ripper and his last stint in the director’s chair was for the musical Kiss of the Spider Woman – and, at present, he is directing The Gut Girls, the next production from The Playhouse Company. Here, he tells us a little about the play:

“I first came to know this play through hearing a monologue from it and I was immediately hooked. That was eighteen years ago and now I finally have the chance to direct the piece. There are ten roles for women and six roles for men and, never having directed a play about women with just a few men involved – the majority of plays require more men than women – I have got the men to double up and play more than one role each.

Set at the end of the nineteenth century the Gut Girls themselves are a group who love the financial freedom their job gives them even though they are considered one step away from whores. Their job is sorting the livers, lungs, kidneys, hearts and various other bits of animals' insides! At the end of the day, go for a drink or three and generally have a great time. The men do not mess with the Gut Girls!

With the play’s theme of female independence, her contemporaries have considered Sarah Daniels a feminist playwright – although she herself denies the allegation – for championing the cause of female emancipation and equality with men, the progress of which has been painfully slow and is a struggle that continues into the present day.”

THE GUT GIRLS, SAT 1 - SAT 8 NOVEMBER at 7.45 pm
(No Sunday performance)
Tickets £9 (£7 concessions Mon & Tues)