A NEW production by a local theatre company gets its premiere next week, as The Canary Girls opens at The Courtyard.

The Canary Girls is the story of the women - and men - who worked in the Rotherwas Munitions Factory during two world wars and is an integral element of Herefordshire’s WWI commemorations.

It is written and directed by Paul Murray, who has been working as a director for more than 30 years in Herefordshire, most recently directing The Pillow Man at The Courtyard for 4Play Theatre Company. He is also the author of 15 plays and has produced acclaimed works across the county and nationally, often with young people, and Young Bloods Theatre Company is his most recent project.

“I’ve always been interested in putting on theatre that reflects the local community, and I wanted to start a new company to do that, one that wasn’t either a youth theatre company or an older company, so I brought together a new company, some of the members of which are students at local colleges and the rest of them are older people, up to their late 20s, who are working,” says Paul. “I wanted to get that mix and build a company dedicated to presenting theatre about the local community and its history in various ways, theatre that would look at subjects that would bring in people who would not normally go to the theatre - the Canary Girls seems an ideal subject to start with, because their story hadn’t been told, and I thought it was such a big part of Hereford’s history. I started work on the project when I retired from working in education three years ago and spent a lot of time researching it.”

Nearly 4,000 women did dangerous and damaging work in the Rotherwas Munitions Factory in World War One. “We have drawn from their voices and memories to bring their stories to a wider audience,” says Paul. “The set, costumes and working practices will be as authentic as we can make them to mirror their lives as accurately as possible.“Most of it is based on first-hand testimony, and then we had to grapple with the challenge of putting a factory on stage and making it as authentic as possible to reflect the day-to-day work of the factory - the singing we’ve included reflects the fact that the women would sing to offset the soporific effects of the cordite they were working with.

“The play follows the stories of several different characters, who you meet first as workers in the factory, and then learn more about their lives. All the incidents in the play are based on real life stories I found during my research, including that of the factory inspector. I have given it a narrative arc, but I’ve tried not to take too much dramatic licence, though some of it you have to fictionalise because you can only know so much.”

As final rehearsals for The Canary Girls continue, the company’s next productions are already in the pipeline - a drama about the 1760s Herefordshire Cider Riots and Heroes and Heartthrobs – the story of theatre in Hereford, the birthplace of Nell Gwynne and David Garrick and the early home of John Kemble and Sarah Siddons.

The Canary Girls: The story of the forgotten heroines of the world wars is at The Courtyard from Tuesday to Saturday, September 20. To book, call the box office on 01432 340555 or visit courtyard.org.uk