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Review: Spitfire Girls (Birmingham Rep)

Review by Clancy Haynes

 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

 

It is easy to become a little complacent when it comes to shows about World War II. We think we know all the stories, the heroics, the tragedies. We enjoy the films on bank holidays and watch the parades and services that mark the anniversaries of the start of the war, VE Day, D-Day and so on. The further away in years we get from it, the less human it becomes, an almost romanticised, antiquated style of warfare compared with the present day. We think we are familiar with it all. Sometimes, however, a less familiar story comes along that is so compelling that we cannot help but be reminded of the impact of the war and the bravery and sacrifice of ordinary people whose lives were changed forever. Such is the story of Spitfire Girls, playing at the Birmingham REP this week.

 


Spitfire Girls, written by Katherine Senior and directed by Seán Aydon, is a fictional piece inspired by the real-life stories of many women who answered the call to play their part and do their duty during the war. It tells the story of two sisters, Bett and Dotty, who are reunited on New Year’s Eve 1959. As they reminisce, the audience is transported back to the wartime years when, keen to escape their rural life on their father’s farm, they enlist to be part of the British Air Transport Auxiliary. The ATA was created due to the shortage of pilots required to fly planes (including the titular Spitfire) across the country to air bases, factories, and maintenance facilities, with 168 women employed over the course of the war. The sisters enlist and the first act of the play follows their initial training, and the audience experiences the excitement of their first missions, new friendships, and falling in love for the first time. We watch as with relatively little training, they take to the skies in often terrifying conditions, defying the traditional female roles thrust on them by society while also having them thrown in their faces by their male counterparts.

 

Laura Matthews gives a charming performance of the lively, spirited Dotty. Her joy at the adventure in front of her and the discovery of a natural talent to fly airplanes is infectious, and her indignation at unheard but obviously prevalent comments about a woman’s place, justifiable. One of the standout sequences in the play belonged to Dotty’s first Spitfire flight, an impressive movement piece, where Matthews ‘flies’ in the arms of the cast. It made the experience beautiful, ethereal, and emotional. Matthews had great chemistry with Katherine Senior, who made an endearing Bett, full of sadness, regret, a little jealousy, and the love of an older sister. Bett often seemed to be a tragic figure, seemingly on the peripheral compared with Dotty’s full immersion in life. Senior’s scenes as the landlady of The Spitfire pub in 1959 were her best, drinking her drinks, sending an absent father home to his child and drowning in her memories. A moving performance from the writer of the piece, and it was obvious she cared very much about this character and her story.

 


Some of the most effective sequences in the play involved no words being spoken and relied on movement alone. The aforementioned flying sequence utilised Laura Matthews’ movement ability to wonderful effect. This was again highlighted in a beautiful but tragic dance sequence with Samuel Tracy that opened the second act. However, the sequence where Bett and Dotty are accepted into the ATA, and we watch as they leave their old lives behind, was stunning. The sisters change from their civvies into their uniforms, don their flight jackets, and slide into their cockpits. They undergo their training, follow the guidance of their instructors, and pull back the stick to experience their first flight. The synchronicity of the two actors in these moments was incredible and it was a joy to watch.

 

Sitting in the auditorium, waiting for the play to start, it was impossible to avoid admiring the stage area: a raised hexagonal platform emblazoned with the unmistakable concentric circles of the spitfire. This small space, surrounded by black, focused the audience in on the action, whether it was the various pubs frequented by the main characters, the ATA base and offices, or airplane cockpits. Sarah Beaton’s staging was fairly simple, with chairs and tables and the all-important bars utilised in most scenes. The cosy wooden chairs that sat in the sisters’ farmhouse home, changed to metal ones when they moved to the the ATA base. A small but subtle detail that represented the change in their lives.



Set changes were slick and well managed, music was never overbearing, and sound effects were natural and effective. It was, therefore, a pity that the actors’ voices were not always clear or audible. During louder speeches, this was not a problem, but during quieter moments, especially when the actors were moving about the stage, words and ends of sentences were lost. I found this particularly challenging in earlier scenes where a relationship between Tom and Bett was discussed between the two characters but because it was difficult to hear them, I felt the relationship was a little lost and it had an impact later in the play when events didn’t pack the emotional punch they should have.

 

Spitfire Girls is a terrific play, based on incredible real-life events. It is well staged and the cast, particularly the two leads, are impressive. The flying sequences were imaginative and moving and the story itself was uplifting and heartbreaking at the same time. It is a pity that a few lost words meant that some emotional beats were a little lost, but this did not undermine my enjoyment. If you think you know everything about World War II, then go and see Spitfire Girls, an inspiring story for any age.

 

Spitfire Girls is on at the Birmingham REP until Saturday 21st June 2025.

 

 

Photos by Ant Robling

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