Sylvia, the story of the feminist, socialist, and suffragist Sylvia Pankhurst, written by Kate Prince, Priya Parmar, Josh Cohen and DJ Walde, has been some six years in the making; plenty of time to get the work as close to excellent as possible, writes Michael Holland.
Told totally in song, like a Hamilton for the suffrage movement, it took me a while to get my head round it. Plus, the cast having to work with ‘The Women’s Social and Political Union’ as a rap lyric didn’t help. But when I settled in I was mesmerised.
All the main players of the period are there: Churchill, Kier Hardie, Lloyd George, all the Pankhursts, and a few Lords making fools of themselves in their quest to stop women from having the vote.
Through hip-hop, soul and funk music we follow the journey of women’s tribulations over many years, from the early days of the WSPU, their affiliation with the Labour Party, their fallout with said party and how Churchill, as Home Secretary, sent in his police force to beat up and lock up marching suffragettes, then force feed them in jail. A horror Sylvia suffered herself.
As much as Churchill was against votes for women – spurred on by his harridan mother(played brilliantly by Jade Hackett), so Kier Hardie as head of the Labour Party was for it, but would not give full support until all working-class men had a vote. However, when Churchill marries Clementine he discovers that she has feminist tendencies and finds himself between two women with conflicting views.
Sylvia shows how public opinion turned after women died from police beatings, the force-feeding of female prisoners, the ignoring of the work women put in for the war effort, and Emily Davison dying for the cause when she stood in front of the runners and riders at the 1913 Epsom Derby.
We also see the rift between the Pankhursts when mother, Emmeline, and daughter Christabel, fall out with Sylvia because their campaign was purely for women getting the vote rather than suffrage for all, whereas Sylvia knew if working-class men got the vote first, it would strengthen the argument for women too.
The whole story, though, is played out to a wicked bass line with a funky drummer doing his stuff. The rhymes in the raps are often of the nursery kind but they often are, and there are references to several soul and hip-hop classics that bring a knowing smile to faces, but the beat never stops and the stage is constantly alive. Beverley Knight demonstrates the power of her voice as Emmeline, eliciting applause pretty much every time she sings, and Sharon Rose as Sylvia is not far behind.
Ben Stones appears to be the go-to guy for set and costume these days as his work is just up the road in the National in Standing At The Sky’s Edge, and it is just as good here with a stark monochrome set and costumes, with just a slash of red here and there to depict Labour’s colours.
More powerful than anything is black actors playing historic white people, showing the struggles of black people being just as relevant as the struggles white women have had through the ages.
Sylvia is a great show where everyone cheers when women get the vote as if it has just been announced and not something from almost a century ago. That moment of real jubilation highlights how much we were all caught up in the journey that we took with the protagonists.
Old Vic, The Cut, SE1 8NB until April 8th. Times: Mon-Sat 7.30pm; Wed & Sat matinees 2.30pm. Admission: £12 – £125.
Booking: www.oldvictheatre.com