Strikers! to premiere in Burton

A date is now set for the premiere of the community play about Vale Rawlings, which is called 'Strikers!'

It will be staged as a rehearsed reading on the evening of Friday December 6, at Burton Town Hall, King Edward Place, Burton-on-Trent. This is a venue with relevance to Vale's story. We know he stood on the stage on one memorable occasion, in September 1913, and addressed hundreds of the town's brewery workers.

Details about tickets and how to buy them will be available later in the year. For now, please save the date.

Could you be in our cast?

We are now looking for people who want to be involved in the community play. To take part you MUST be available on Friday December 6 for the performance and also on Thursday December 5 when there will be a full run-through for all the cast with music and sound effects.

It will be a rehearsed reading – meaning there are no lines to learn by heart. Actors will sit on stage and stand at a microphone when it's their turn to speak and act their lines with their script in their hands. Imagine it as a radio play on stage. There are no costumes or set.

As well as adults, we need a Young Ensemble Chorus (aged 13-17). Some of them will have lines of dialogue and all will sing some simple verses and choruses together. They will represent factory girls and working class youths of the time. They will also have the lyrics in front of them and not need to learn words by heart.

Profits to two Burton charities

The play tells the true story of a forgotten folk hero from Burton. In 1914, Vale Rawlings stood up for a group of young female factory workers in the town, aged 13-17, who were getting very little money for long hours of repetitive tasks making toxic flypapers.

It is widely believed that Vale (a slightly-built 4ft 11ins) was framed for assaulting a Police Inspector (6ft tall) on a picket line at the factory. When Vale was jailed there was a national outcry. Newspapers across the country wrote about the case. Vale’s name was on everyone’s lips. This play explores events leading up to the strike and what happened afterwards.

All profits from the sale of tickets to the play – and from a book about Vale that will be published in 2025 – will be split between Burton charities YMCA Burton and SARAC.

Although the script will be read on the night, we will expect all performers to be familiar with their dialogue so that they can act it rather than just read it, and look out at the audience from time to time. Scripts will be available a few months before the performance.

A community play for our community

There will only be a couple of read-throughs before the rehearsal at the Town Hall on the evening of December 5. We will work round the cast's other commitments and see people on different days and times for different scenes. The Young Ensemble Chorus will have a separate rehearsal or two to get familiar with their tunes.

We are proud to say that the project has the full support of Vale’s descendants. A number of his grandchildren still live locally.

We are currently planning a couple of drop-in sessions in Burton where people interested in being in the play can find out more. Details will be posted here and on our Vale Rawlings Facebook Page as soon as they are confirmed.

If you’d like to be part of the experience but DON’T want to have solo dialogue, you could be involved as an ‘extra’. There are crowd ‘scenes’ where cast members need to boo, cheer or create other background noise as they react to what is being said by other characters – for instance at a public meeting, on a picket line or in the public gallery at court.

We want this to be a true community play for and by the local community, so do get in touch if you want to know more. You can contact us at valerawlingsprojectcic@gmail.com.