The title is Idle Women, but that’s the irony. Idle was the very last thing these women were as you will discover when Phil Jones brings his new musical to Shoreham Wordfest for a date at Ropetackle Arts Centre on October 8 (2pm and 7.30pm performances).
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00:00 Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor for Sussex Newspapers. Now there's
00:05 a fascinating new musical premiered in Brighton earlier this year, coming to Shoreham Wordfest
00:12 on October the 8th. The piece we're talking about is Idle Women and it's been brought
00:17 together by Phil Jones, to whom I'm speaking. Now the irony of course is Idle Women is the
00:22 title, but the women depicted were anything but idle, weren't they? Explain that one.
00:29 I think that's the first thing that caught my eye really, exactly. They were referred
00:34 to as idle women because they had badges with IW on the badge, which was Inland Waterways.
00:42 And what were they doing and when? Well, they were working on the canals as of
00:47 1942 onwards, as really sort of part of the war effort. There were a shortage of men working
00:53 the canals, many men had gone off to fight. And this was ensuring safe passage of whatever
00:59 was on the canals. Oh yeah, yes. I mean, canals were super
01:02 important in terms of particularly coal and other things up and down the country, using
01:09 the canal network that we still have. So they spotted it as a gap in the provision and stepped
01:19 forward to do that work. They were also, very interestingly, they were in the main middle
01:27 class women who were looking for adventure outside of Hearth and Home, as it were, which
01:33 I think makes an even more interesting story. So somehow Inland Waterways became Idle Women.
01:39 And these women, did they get the adventure, do you think? What was your impression of
01:43 what they got up to? Well, they did. There's a couple of really
01:48 good memoirs which tell of their, you know, just their day to day life was just exhausting
01:57 and full of locks and challenges, and they had to get food, communications. I mean, this
02:04 is, our play is a fictionalised drama based on that, with some, but everything that kind
02:12 of happened on there, we kind of knew happened. But we put it together in a way that we hope
02:17 will really grab the audience. That sounds great. And you had a really good
02:22 start at the Brighton Fringe this year. Yeah, no, we did. People really loved it. They're
02:27 great songs. It's kind of serious, but also very funny and very warm hearted, and I think
02:35 draws people in. Oh, that sounds brilliant. And so we've got
02:39 Shoreham now, but already you're starting to think about next year and what you can
02:42 do with it. Yes, yeah, no, indeed. We're looking at,
02:46 got some offers around the country, just working out how to do it practically, because there's
02:51 not a lot of money around, is there, really, for people buying tickets or for us to make
02:56 it happen. Brilliant. Well, good luck with that.
03:00 Lovely to speak to you, and I hope it goes brilliantly. Thank you.