Chopped Liver & Unions: A Defiant Song of Solidarity
Two Sisters Arts Centre, Trimley St. Mary, Suffolk
★★★★★

BLUE FIRE Theatre Company’s Chopped Liver & Unions is a vibrant and urgently relevant resurrection of a hidden history. This production is less a quiet period piece and more a raucous rally, bringing to life the story of Sara Wesker, a real-life Communist organiser who mobilised young Jewish women in the East End clothing trades of the 1920s.

The play’s power is anchored by Lottie Walker’s magnetic performance as Sara. She embodies the wit, ferocity, and resilience of a leader fighting not just exploitative employers but also the sexism within the labour movement itself. Walker makes Sara a compelling, three-dimensional force, driving the narrative with a passion that feels both historically authentic and strikingly modern.

The true genius of the production is its form, mirroring the tactics of the strikers it portrays. Just as the real women used parody songs to raise funds and morale, the play is propelled by a live, cleverly subverted musical score. Familiar tunes of hymns and jazz are twisted into sharp, funny, and often vulgar weapons of class struggle. A sentimental ballad becomes starkly political, while a hymn transforms into bitter irony.

While the play doesn’t shy from the harsh reality that some strikes ended in setback, its overall tone is one of triumphant resilience. It argues that the true victory was in the act of defiance itself — the forging of political community and the birth of a new social consciousness.

Chopped Liver & Unions is more than a history lesson; it’s a harmonious and urgent chorus for today, powerfully proving that the world is indeed “changed by the women you push too far.”

Runs continues in 2026: February 28-March 1 Lantern Theatre, Brighton; March 22-24 at The Tabard Theatre, Chiswick. For more information see: bluefiretheatre.co.uk