This show, first staged in 2019, is maybe the most interesting theatre experience I’ve had all year. I’m not sure I’ve seen a show that more fundamentally felt like a story that needed to be told, with its medium being almost secondary.
This is not a play with especially high stakes or tension, but that’s not the point: the point is to convey – as far as I can see, as authentically as is possible – the story of four girls from Merseyside in the mid-60s, who carved out a place in musical history as the world’s first all-female rock’n’roll band.
The costumes are minimal, the cast rotating and proving to be equally talented as actors and musicians, and the stage is multi-use – amps become benches or sofas, and a well-placed apron denotes a change in character from lead singer to Mum. The static set is pleasingly chaotic: haphazardly piled TVs, amps and speakers frame the onstage instruments, with a gigantic brightly-lit guitar fret as the centrepiece. The music is all performed live on stage, and the first song is ‘filmed’ by turret-lens cameras and ‘broadcast’ in black and white on the onstage TV screens – these are used to great effect throughout the show, with particular mention to the ending’s poignant slideshow of the real life Liverbirds in their heyday.
I saw ‘Girls Don’t Play Guitars’ on its opening night, but there were no apparent first night jitters – the whole cast was seamlessly professional, flitting from role to role and instrument to instrument with ease. The majority of this musical is (surprise, surprise) the music, which had clearly been very well rehearsed by the very talented cast, who were pitch perfect throughout.
While the plot felt a little sparse or even rushed at times, the dedication to telling the story of Sylvia, Pam, Val and Mary and their meteoric rise to fame in mainland Europe is well-conveyed within the relative time constraints – the band never got the fame they deserved in the UK, and it’s especially wonderful and important to tell their story in their home country and, even better, their home city. Playwright Ian Salmon wrote this with input from the surviving members of The Liverbirds (who made a surprise cameo at last night’s performance, which I’m slightly embarrassed to say made me burst into tears), and it’s touching to know that their memories and stories are intertwined in the show’s every word and beat.
‘Girls Don’t Play Guitars’ runs at the Royal Court Theatre until October 26th, and it’s well worth a visit to hear the undertold story of Merseyside’s Liverbirds.