Gut Girls – portrays the plight of slaughterhouse workers in Sarah Daniels’ drama set in the dark underbelly of Victorian England.
Gut Girls
John Abbott Professional Theatre Department
Written By Sarah Daniels
Directed by Tracy-Leigh Campbell
Casgrain Studio. May 4, 5, 10, 11, 13 2017
Horrified by their plight, we come to like and admire the gut girls – mostly in their teens. The girls have no chance in Victorian patriarchal society. The best promotion is to domestic service, another form of slavery. The gut-girl sub-culture is a cross between Hieronymus Bosch and George Orwell — where innocents are ground up and spat out by a cold society.
The opening scene, where working ankle-deep in the entrails of pigs, cows and sheep, a new girl almost faints from the odour when introduced to the “gut girls” – society’s young unfortunates – castoffs, viewed as a mere notch or two above prostitutes. These feisty and crude girls, hack away at pieces of meat finding black humour in their situation.
While seeking fun wherever they can find it, the “gut girls” swill beer in grotty pubs and touchingly take pride in their garishly decorated hats. Their free time is hijacked, when Lady Helena, an unrealistic socialite decides to “tame” the girls and browbeats them into going to her club, where they learn manners and domestic-help skills.
John Abbott College Department of Theatre and Music
The images were all taken during dress rehearsals of the Gut Girls.
