‘Powerful, thought-provoking, and emotionally significant’

Jane Nellist, Coventry Socialist Party

To mark the 50th anniversary of the Grunwick Strike, Townsend Productions are touring their magnificent production of ‘We Are The Lions, Mr Manager!’ I was fortunate to see it in Coventry to a packed house.

Witten by Neil Gore and directed by Louise Townsend, the play tells the story of the extraordinary courage of Jayaben Desai who led a strike at the Grunwick film processing factory in London from 1976 to 1978. The strike was over the treatment of workers by management and, among other things, the refusal to pay for overtime worked. 

Jayaben is played by Rukmini Sircar who embodies the character of the leader of this strike. It was spellbinding to hear her recount the story and experiences of Jayaben, having to leave and resettle in Britain from Uganda. Thousands of Indian workers who had settled in Uganda and other African countries, and had a good lifestyle and jobs, were forced to leave with little money and possessions.  

Neil Gore skilfully morphs into multiple characters – from the abrasive manager to the supportive union secretary and even right-wing antagonists. Interspersed are protest songs of the time and projected images of historical film of the strike.

It’s far more than just an historical account of this strike, it points out the failures of the trade union leadership, despite the massive support of ordinary rank-and-file union members who stood side by side with the workers facing the full force of the state. They were viciously beaten back by police, which we saw with other strikes, especially the miners’ strike. Tory MPs and the right-wing ‘National Association For Freedom’ campaigned for the owners.

For the 40th anniversary of the Grunwick’s strike, delegates of Coventry TUC, who attended the huge pickets, recounted their memories of the picket lines and the brutality of the police.

I liked the fact that the evening included local choirs and South Indian dancers to add to the experience.

When a manager dismissively likened the workers to chattering monkeys, Jayaben delivers the now-iconic line that gives the play its title: “What you are running here is not a factory, it is a zoo… We are the lions, Mr Manager!”

The play is a powerful, thought-provoking, and emotionally significant piece of theatre that recognises a genuine ‘lion’ of the labour movement and ensures her roar is heard by a new generation.

• ‘We Are The Lions, Mr Manager!’ by Townsend Productions is on tour until 6 December. For a date near you, visit townsendproductions.org.uk