MIK SABIERS revels in a band that ploughs an idiosyncratic furrow of expletive laden, guitar-driven alt rock
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Girls in blue
SUSAN DARLINGTON is disappointed by a show that aims to highlight misogyny within the police but fails to arrest the audience's attention
(L to R) Eddie Ahrens, Rachel Hammond, Hannah Baker and Harvey Badger in A Force To Be Reckoned With
[Robling Photography]
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RON JACOBS recommends an important book that enhances the oppositional theories put forth by Fanon and, in doing so, remakes psychology itself
JAN WOOLF relishes an extensive history of our long relationship to trees in Britain that underlines the current emergency
DIANE WATT argues that while evidence of sex is not there, a 16th‑century lesbian poet could be Scotland’s answer to Gentleman Jack
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A Force to be Reckoned With: Wetherby Whaler, Guiseley
INTIMATE community shows about big subject matters are something in which Mikron specialises, having previously tackled the suffragette movement and the NHS. An exploration of pioneering women in the police should be an easy win, especially at a time the force is under increasing scrutiny about institutional misogyny.
It’s therefore disappointing to find that Amanda Whittington’s A Force to be Reckoned With fails to arrest the audience’s attention.
The four-handed play centres on WPC Iris Armstrong (Hannah Baker), an eager-to-please new 1950s recruit who can quote passages of the law verbatim. Her dreams of walking the beat are challenged by the reality of typing and making drinks for her two male colleagues (Eddie Ahrens and Harvey Badger), until she teams up with ambitious and no-nonsense WPC Ruby Roberts (Rachel Hammond).
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