There’s something knowing about Nicky Hallett and Val Regan’s new musical. It’s a show based on recent history that’s simultaneously uncomfortable with its status as, in the wry words of one character, “heritage”. In telling the story of the pioneering 1980s Sheffield garage run by three female mechanics, Gwenda’s Garage celebrates these women while refusing to turn them into calcified historical figures.
As the performers tell the audience, this is a half-remembered, incomplete version of the actual Gwenda’s Garage, with fictional characters in place of the real mechanics. The musical is as much about the female protagonists’ activism against the backdrop of Tory rule and the introduction of Section 28 as it is about the garage itself, with rousing songs such as We Had a Scam and Welcome to Sheffield creating an infectious atmosphere of collective feminist and queer protest.
The beating heart of the show is the relationship between co-workers Bev (Nancy Brabin Platt) and Terry (Sia Kiwa). While Bev wants to settle down and become a mother, Terry is – as she sings – a “family of one”, resistant to monogamy and uncompromising in her activism. Their experiences underline what’s at stake here, as Bev is threatened with the removal of her foster kids and Terry struggles with the doubled oppression of being Black and gay in an overwhelmingly white women’s movement. Both must grapple with when to stay quiet, when to compromise and when to speak out.
Next to this complexity, other characters are lightly sketched. While performed with real warmth by Eva Scott, kind and capable garage boss Carol remains slightly under-explored; likewise charming but clueless trainee mechanic Dipstick (Lucy Mackay). The addition of curious outsider Feona (Georgina Coram) allows for exposition and some crowd-pleasing gags at the expense of Southerners, but her journey from customer to ally to fully fledged member of the sisterhood feels rushed and thin.
Jelena Budimir’s buoyant production is rough around the edges in a way that suits the scrappy spirit of the garage. No straightforward history play, Gwenda’s Garage is an unruly and joyful story of making change, with its eyes as much on the present as the past.
