“Offal by name, awful by nature.”

Sarah Daniels’ critically acclaimed play ‘The Gut Girls’ first opened in Deptford in 1988, but 2014 saw the dark gutting sheds of the late Victorian period come to the post-industrial towns of east Newcastle Upon Tyne. The audience, thrown into the immersive and atmospheric red brick walls of Hoult’s Yard’s Warehouse 34, followed the boisterous and charismatic bunch of abattoir workers as they fight for their place in a society that gives them no more consideration than the prostitutes of old London.

The do-gooder aristocrat, Lady Helena, takes it upon herself to visit the Gut Girls in their gutting sheds, and makes it her mission to tame these girls and find them more ladylike employment; such employment would pay a yearly wage similar to the girls’ regular weekly wage. This ‘mission’ soon proves to be detrimental to the girls way of life, and there is no turning back.

Under the direction of Twenty Seven Co-Owner Christopher Linton, our strong cast from all over the country brought Daniel’s play to life in October of 2014. Having a traverse stage especially built and erected in the dimly lit warehouse, with pies and ale on sale at the interval, the atmosphere was ripe, adding to the visceral performances of the superb cast.

“They had their finger on the pulse of the era, artistic team and performers reaching deep into the gut of the piece and squelching up the raw drama”

Cast

Arabella Arnot – Lady Helena

Andrew Horsley – Harry, Arthur, Len and Mad Jacko

Gemma Carter – Annie, Emily and Eady

Eilidh Talman – Maggie, Nora and Edna

Victoria Gibson – Polly

Jacob Anderton – Jim and Edwin

Eleanor Faye – Kate

Rebecca Maltman – Ellen and Priscilla

Copyright Twenty Seven Live Ltd, Company Number 9677540.