ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
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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
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
MICK McSHANE rubs shoulders with Mod legend Steve Craddock and joins in with the joyous Glasgow choir
DENNIS BROE sifts out the ideological bias of the newest TV series offerings, and picks out what to see, and what to avoid
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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