REVIEW
Torch Theatr, Milford Haven
March 23rd 2023
The musical Tic Toc which toured thirteen theatres across Wales, presented a joyful, nostalgic romp of toe-tapping energy and teamwork. At the same time, the show offered an opportunity for serious reflection on an important episode Welsh women’s history to a wide audience. On tour from the 23rd February to the 25th of March ’23, the show reached an audience of nearly 2000.
The historical context for the show is a time of gradual industrial decline. Tic Toc focuses on the story of one character who was ostracised for a time for her failure to strike, alongside her factory ‘sisters’. She has not been invited to the workers’ reunion. The show highlights the tensions and determination of the workers, as well as the pressure on the women to support their families by working outside the home. Those women responded with mutually supportive camaraderie, which is eloquently communicated through the script.
For AMC WAW the show presented a very special display of outstanding talent and initiative from our committee members and beyond. Our teamwork is quietly and determinedly as joyful as Tic Toc. As a charitable organisation, staffed by volunteers, our committee and its associates represent a source of skill and expertise. Tic Toc highlights the massive contribution of Catrin Edwards, an AMC WAW committee member and experienced producer, director and composer for TV and theatre, who was responsible for composing the songs and musical direction. The script for the bilingual show was written and directed by Valmai Jones, Welsh actor, writer, and director, who brought her 40 years of experience to the project, along with her conviction that freshly devised theatre pieces are essential to the development of theatre in Wales.
The musical is based on the oral history interviews from the Women’s Archive Wales project, Voices from the Factory Floor/Lleisiau o Lawr y Ffatri; a project that drew together the memories of 200 factory-working women who had worked across Wales. If the show has inspired you to immerse yourself in the detail of the project, a reminder that the individual stories were drawn together by Catrin Stevens in the book: Voices from the Factory Floor, Amberley Press, 2017.
This article comes by way of a prompt for our readers to revisit the website www.factorywomensvoices.wales, to celebrate this special project ,and play our part in ensuring that all the women’s work highlighted will not be forgotten.We thank all those involved – from the workers, volunteers and factory women interviewees who took part in the original oral history project ‘Voices from the Factory Floor/Lleisiau o Lawr y Ffatri’ project, to Parama 2’s professional cast, musicians and crew and the moment the curtain fell on the final Tic Toc show in The Welfare, Ystradgynlais – for their commitment to safeguarding and sharing women’s history.
© Alison Elliott April 2023
Review by Jen Wilson
What an absolutely splendid production of the musical Tic Toc, enjoyed by a packed audience at Ystradgynlais Welfare Hall on 8th November 2019. Gail Allen and I were knocked out by the whole thing. We thought it stimulating, thought-provoking, warm, moving, outrageous, and were impressed by the way the bi-lingual bits were woven into the text, helping out non- or partial- Welsh speakers. The plot centred around six women on a factory reunion night out with all that entails... laughs, tears, scandals, rows, camaraderie, worker/boss confrontations, and latterly the onset of pensionable age; all performed to a tremendous selection of music from the 60s era performed by a live band with music composed and directed by producer Catrin Edwards on guitar, together with Ann Hopcyn piano, and Luke Adams guitars.
The excitement of the 60’s music scene vividly busted out all over the stage, and the intervening years covered by the lovely songs bringing a lump to the throat, as reminiscence should... while we ponder “did we do the right thing back then”? We could hear members of the audience behind us whispering things like “Oo I remember that” or having the occasional sniff. I hope this production has “got legs” and does a national tour. Why not! Plenty of English productions come over the bridge. Wales never shouts loud enough about the talent it has. The Scots and Irish are better at making a noise than us. It’s time Wales and TIC TOC let rip.
The show is written & directed by Valmai Jones, and based on the WAW project ‘Voices from the Factory Floor’.
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Women’s Archive Wales Newsletter, Richard Burton Archives, Singleton Park Library, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea, Wales, SA2 8PP