The celebration of these unrecognised women is 'truly charming' says Cristina Lago...
OUR VERDICT
What were British women doing during World War II? Over 640,000 of them were in the armed forces; many more flew unarmed aircraft, drove ambulances or served as nurses and worked behind enemy lines in the European resistance in the Special Operations Executive.
By mid-1943, almost 90 per cent of single women and 80 per cent of married ones were working in factories, on the land or in the army performing roles that were essential in defeating Hitler and his Nazi terror.
Lilies on the Land gives life to four of those women who volunteered to join the Women’s Land Army (WLA). More than 80,000 women enrolled in this special ‘regiment’, enduring tough living conditions and working long hours in isolated rural outposts to prevent Britain from being ‘starved out’.
The four ‘Land Girls’ (as they were known a the time) in the play reflect some of the different backgrounds of the women who made the WLA: while Poppy (Victoria Hinds) and Vera (Héloïse Plumley) portray the posh and educated ladies from the South of England, Geordie Margie (Juliette Sexton), and cockney Lily Tomlinson (Peggy) represent those who came from the working class.
Based on actual accounts from real WLA volunteers, the women recall the vicissitudes and experiences lived in the remote farm they were sent to: from milking cows and ploughing the fields to driving tractors and going out at night with the lads. The stories are poignant, funny and moving and are a needed celebration of these often unrecognised women. However, the ‘girly’ anecdotes are overwhelmingly more prominent than those which tell us about deeper struggles suffered by the women.
Whereas we are given plenty of details about clothes, boys and night outings, other situations exposed such as rape (which is called “abuse” in the play), their fight for a decent toilet or the fact that the farmer refused to pay their wages (farmers were paid by the state, who were then supposed to pay the Land Girls), lack a deeper examination. Some of their arguments project the bias of the society at the time and uncritically reproduce the status without questioning it.
Another problematic, and even contradictory, aspect of the play is the romanticised portrait given to Churchill - a BBC Home service announcing his death in 1965 opens the play and triggers the women’s memories. This is the same Churchill who at the end of the war wrote in a note to the Cabinet “Women ought not to be treated the same as men... the sooner they are back at their homes the better”.
Leaving the arguable sides of the play aside, this production co-directed by Linda Sirker and Mandy Stenhouse is truly charming, with a beautiful sound and lighting work and engaging performances.
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