Clean The Musical at the Cockpit Theatre, London.
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Simon Scardanelli’s original score is the beating heart of this musical, arranged for seven women’s voices, cellist and guitarist, with additions of ukulele, flute, tambourine, accordion and keyboard from the ensemble of actor-musicians, all with lyrical voices of accuracy and beauty, solo and in harmony.
Set in the Round Hill, also known as Laundry Hill, area of Brighton, the book by Sam Chittenden, who also wrote the lyrics, is a series of monologues from women through the years, from 1880 until today. The Mayo laundry on Richmond Road gives the show its central theme. The set, festooned with washing lines, sheets wrung and folded, is the backdrop to their stories and gives the musical its title.
Tasha, a young pregnant woman, returns to her late mother’s home and while sorting through her possessions comes across books relating to this part of Brighton. As she explores the books, the characters within them tell their stories.
Sussex-based producers Different Theatre focuses on work with female-driven narratives, and so we hear about the men’s roles in these women’s lives, albeit briefly. Money spent on drink contributes to the poverty and hardship, and Ruby tells us of her brutal treatment at the hands of her husband, but what shines through is the resilience of these women in their shared sisterhood.
Dr Helen Boyle and her female partner and lover Dr Mabel Jones set up the first hospital for women with nervous disorders, understanding that their root cause is often the incessant struggle to make ends meet compounded by continuous child birth.
They tell of the struggle with menopause, the solace of Greenham Common, the Suffragette movement. The 1950s outbreak of smallpox, killing many and disfiguring those who survived, draws parallels with Covid as the race is on to get everyone vaccinated. The laundry, identified as the source of the virus, is forced to close, resulting in the loss of much-needed income. A home for victims of domestic abuse (“battered women”) is opened.
When so many musicals relegate older women to the character roles of grandmothers and aunts, Juliet (Jack Cryer) is intensely moving in her song ‘Gravity’, as is Millicent (Sharon Drain) who sings ‘Lullaby’ to her grandchild after her daughter dies from childbirth in the woods, abandoned by the master of the house where she works as a scullery maid.
Scardanelli’s melodies are gentle and folklike, the voices reminiscent of Baez and Mitchell. For those of you who are opera lovers, it recalls at times Britten’s great quartet for female voices from Peter Grimes, ‘From the Gutter’.
Though I felt a bit of trimming of the book might give the show greater impact, my female companion disagreed, saying that the stories reflected so many moments in her life.
Judey Bignell, Jack Cryer, Sharon Drain, Anna Chloe Moorey, Holly Ray, Rosa Samuels and Amelia Armande bring these women vividly to life, reflecting the sisterhood they sing about in the opening song. And then they sing, so beautifully, voices blending in perfect harmony. And special mention must be made of the haunting cello of Ben Alexander, threading its way through the musical fabric.
This brief London run at the Cockpit Theatre must surely herald a wider run for this intriguing musical. At the very least there should be a recording of these performances, to preserve this wonderful score. [If you are interested, the songs are available on all the usual platforms – Spotify, iTunes, etc – and can be dowloaded via the theatre company’s website www.different-theatre.com/music.]
Leon Ferguson
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