Review by Simon Jenner, August 20 2025
Whilst Brighton Little Theatre are summering out at Brighton Open Air Theatre, their third production is a first. John Yeoman’s 2009 novel for children The Wild Washerwomen has been newly adapted, directed and with music composed by Ella Turk-Thompson, with assistant director Mimi Goddard till August 23rd.
This delightful story hasn’t been adapted before, and, apart from it being only 16 years old, it’s easy to see why. It’s a wackily slim parable on oppressive work conditions, how to organise resistance in the workplace: and go really, really wild. But we shouldn’t get too solemn – even if “zero-hour contracts” is added as a one-liner. And it’s almost a musical.
Photo Credit: Simon Jenner
That’s the first thing Turk-Thompson’s developed to round out the sweet anarchy. ‘The Washerwomen’s Song’ and several others, all tuneful and memorable, aren’t just sung well, but realised in several contrapuntal parts with descants. Turk-Thompson has clearly not just composed but rehearsed as a choir conductor might. The result is spellbinding, with some lovely effects. The women’s choruses in particular shine, but the solos near the end of the show melt.
The story’s narrated by Tess Gill’s Perkin, who with her fine strong delivery threads the tale. Seven washerwomen, all friends, labour dawn to dusk for mean Mr Balthasar Tight (Leigh Ward, top-hatted and magnificently stentorian as ever) in his laundry. They snap. Tight is overwhelmed in laundry and the washerwomen go rampant through the town, upsetting stalls, snatching fruit and making for the woods.
There they’re about to encounter seven lumberjacks in the second half (after a 25 minute first half, a 20 minute interval and just 30 minutes for Act Two: this is a fleet show). Swinging axes on tree-stumps, the men chorus themselves into thinking something should be done and go wild themselves, besmirching themselves in scary ‘slime”, and some very neat netting with a quick backstage flip has them all sublimely, slimily green-gunked. That’ll scare ‘em. But no, the washerwomen have a solution. And all ends unexpectedly.
Photo Credit: Simon Jenner
Don’t look for dramatic Roald Dahl-like tensions. Tight just apparates and is trounced; there’s no struggle. And no redemption. Ward becomes Bast and the men are a wondrous crew themselves.
Beverley Grover handles the sonics and Tom Williams has made a delightful goat cart for a collective trundling. Ros Caldwell’s touching Lysander the Goat never seems to meet the person who’s frightened of goats, but does lead us in a ‘Goat Song’ everyone is enjoined to learn and join in: it’s enormous fun and Caldwell hoofs it winningly. She’s miced up, as is Katie Kybett’s Molly, making her stage debut with a truly affecting song “I’m dreaming”: she sings with quiet magic. Two members of the cast go to support both of them but don’t sing till Molly’s final moments. They might have come in earlier, and perhaps with such an (inevitably) lively crowd of children, micing-up could have been the norm.
An experienced theatre-maker whispered that some theatre-business might have been made with the washerwomen separating whites from coloured clothes. I would simply never have thought of that!
The women’s choruses in particular are beautifully sprung. And the skirling whoops and use of BOAT’s horseshoe sward is relished. Mind the .. water-pistols? Oh you’ll find out how many bubbles there are to a song for yourself.
There’s also a delightful word-puzzle and colouring-in panel (crayon kits provided) on the large-format programme. BLT think of everything.
The rest of the cast are a delight. Though it’s a choric, not individual excellence, they’re certainly worth naming, among them many BLT regulars or Brighton theatre singers. The Washerwomen themselves: Minnie (Ellie Mason), Winnie (Ingrid Mort), Dottie (Jessica Masseron), Dolly (Justine Smith), Ernestine (Phaedra Danelli), Lottie (Zarrina Danaeyar). The ‘men’ too: Ash (Ajinkya Adhav, making an assured English theatre debut), Rowan (Brian Innes), Riven (Chantelle Winder), Flitch (Daniel Carr), Chip (Georgia Stephanov), Blaze (Hannah Summer, another stage debut), Townsperson (Liam O’Reilly).
Turk-Thompson has scored something special here. It might seem slight as a tale, but Turk-Thompson has dared to turn it into a musical with her own compositional gifts, and directorial flair. A first performance inevitably shows how it’ll develop, and a few things will tighten. At a time when children’s access to theatre in schools is being crushed, the theatre-makers and theatregoers of the future (often one and the same) need nurture. Turk-Thompson and BLT, even on holiday, show the way to go.
Stage Manager Neil Turk-Thompson, Technical Manager & Sound Operator Beverley Grover, Production & Design Team Anna Young, Christine Fox, Holly Everett, Lamise Elawad, Tierney Kirby, Goat Cart Construction Tom Williams, Programme Design Holly Everett, Production Photography Miles Davies.
Special thanks to BOAT staff and volunteers, and Rufus and Remy Turk-Thompson
Photo Credit: Simon Jenner
