Girlfriends

You might expect a play about women working in WWII called ‘Girlfriends’ to be all about female empowerment. But this 1986 musical – the third in the Union Theatre’s current season of Howard Goddall revivals – is hardly what you’d call feminist.
 
The ten women in the piece serve on an RAF base: packing parachutes, guiding the planes into land and making tea. But despite the predominantly female cast, the story is largely constructed around the love lives of two male pilots. With such a rich subject matter, it’s a shame there’s little exploration of the women’s friendships with one another.
 
The most interesting character is Jas (Catriana Sandison), a pacifist Glaswegian who struggles to remain on the base after her brother dies. Most of the other characters are two-dimensional and clichéd. There’s the handsome, sexually frustrated pilot (Tom Sterling), the pretty virgin (Corrine Priest), the man-hungry temptress (Sarah Hamilton), to name a few. Their individual backstories are briefly explored, but with so many of them,  it’s difficult to generate any real empathy for their situations. This is coupled with a predictable plot, making for a slow viewing.
 
That said, the acting is good and the singing excellent in Bronagh Lagan’s production – particularly strong are leads Sterling and Perry Lambert. The harmonies weave and blend together beautifully in the choral numbers, often the cast sing in canon, layering up their stories and melodies. But the rhymes are often too clunky and simplistic: ‘I’ve left my job, and my boyfriend called Bob,’ Lambert sings in the opening scene.
 
One of Goodall’s earliest works, lyrical genius it is not. Groundbreaking? No way. But there are some redeeming musical moments from the talented cast – if only there was a bit more girl power and a few more plot surprises thrown in, ‘Girlfriends’ could be really great. Sadly, that’s not the case.