Changing the world is a considerable undertaking. Doing it while disagreeing with your mum adds a complication that even the most determined revolutionary might prefer to avoid. An extraordinary cast and a glorious hip hop, funk and soul score bring Sylvia Pankhurst’s fight for change to Birmingham Hippodrome in a musical as moving as it is exhilarating.
A minute is a long time in a theatre when the performers have to wait for the applause to subside. But that was the response to March Women March at Birmingham Hippodrome, where the audience brought Sylvia to a temporary halt with the most sustained applause I can remember hearing partway through an act. By the final curtain, we were all on our feet. It was an a fitting reception for Kate Prince’s musical about the Pankhurst daughter whose convictions put her at odds with her mother and sister. By then, the production had more than earned it, taking us through an evening of exhilarating music, sharp humour and scenes that left me with tears running down my cheeks.
Beneath the political struggle is an intimate, recognisable battle: the right to decide what you believe when the people you love are convinced they know better. The Pankhurst name may belong to the history books, but the friction between a formidable mother and a daughter with convictions of her own needs very little explaining. There is an obvious influence of Hamilton in the contemporary musical language and the confidence that audiences will follow complex political arguments when delivered with sufficient wit and invention. Both shows invite us to look afresh at lesser-known historical figures, finding personalities, rivalries and complicated loyalties behind the names. Here, the focus on Sylvia brings a fresh perspective to the Pankhurst story, with Josh Cohen and DJ Walde’s score giving the fight for women’s suffrage a real immediacy.
Beverley Knight is an absolute powerhouse as Emmeline Pankhurst. The voice is magnificent, of course, but it is the authority of her performance that makes her such a commanding presence. You understand how this woman could lead a movement, although her resolve is easier to admire from a distance than to live alongside. Naomi Katiyo as Sylvia gives the production a centre every bit as compelling as its matriarch. With Knight opposite her, she has a considerable task, yet makes the title role entirely her own. The political differences matter because we care about what their convictions cost within their own family.
Around them, the predominantly female cast delivers an extraordinary display of energy and precision. There is hardly a moment when anyone is still, yet not a beat is missed. Prince’s choreography fills the stage with movement, and the ensemble sustains that intensity while singing, dancing and giving the story its dramatic weight. The collective effort is thrilling to watch, particularly in a musical about women discovering what they can achieve together. There is plenty of lighter relief, too. A henpecked Churchill and his mother provide comic diversion, while The Case of Science Against Women finds humour in the supposedly respectable arguments used to justify keeping women in their place. The absurdity invites laughter, but the knowledge that women had to fight their way past such thinking gives it an uncomfortable edge.
The staging is exceptionally clever. Against a black set, dates appear writ large at the back of the stage, keeping us anchored in the unfolding history. The predominantly black-and-white palette allows red to make a striking intervention, used effectively to represent the socialist movement. That restraint gives the colour real significance, while leaving the performers and their stories room to command our attention. Then comes Black Friday, and the emotional force of the evening. The portrayal of violence against those campaigning for their rights left me crying, its brutality bringing home the struggle we can too easily reduce to familiar photographs and a chapter in a school textbook.
For all its musical brilliance and considerable humour, Sylvia gives proper focus to the suffering behind the achievements, and to the women whose determination made them possible. It also complicates the comforting idea that progress comes from everyone pulling in the same direction: sometimes the fight involves challenging the people you love most. When the entire audience rose for the final ovation, it felt like the only adequate response.
Sylvia is at Birmingham Hippodrome until Saturday 10 October.
