‘We are the Lions Mr Manager’ – Jayaben Desai play, the other Iron Woman
At a time when a certain Margaret Thatcher was making her way politically, another woman was also intent on change from another direction…
BASED on a real-life story and at a time when Asians were not newsmakers – not willingly anyway – Jayaben Desai’s story is remarkable – even today – after 50 years.
Desai, who was just 4ft 10ins and clad in a sari, became an iconic figure in the British labour movement.
Pictures of her waving a placard for equal rights and dignity at work – as policeman – more than a foot tall than her – held her and other sari-clad women back on the picket line, became iconic daily images on TV news for a time.
Exploited, underpaid and certainly undervalued – she led a fight to get paid overtime and be treated with respect by her employer Grunwick Film Processing factory, 1976-8.
Her story is now contained in the play – ‘We are the Lions Mr Manager’ and is based on a phrase she used to describe her struggle against unscrupulous Grunwick bosses.
In the lead role playing Jayaben Desai, in this two-hander with Neil Gore, who reprises several roles in this, is Rukmini Sircar.
Sircar grew up in India and didn’t know anything about Desai before she got the part.
“She reminds me of my grandmother,” said Sircar over a Zoom with www.asianculturevulture. com, just as the Autumn tour was beginning. “Her indomitable spirit is very reminiscent of that generation (the freedom movement in India) who formed a movement.
“And they believed in non-violence and fighting for your rights and beliefs and saw that change come with Independence from Britain.
“I see that generation in her words – it’s very nostalgic for me – she’ s really carrying it on her shoulders.”
“She’s also very funny and I’m super excited to be playing this incredible woman.”
Desai was a refugee from East Africa. She and her family, husband and two sons, had to leave Tanzania – where the British had initially welcomed them to help with building the railways, run shops and create services and products for an Asian immigrant population, lured to East Africa by the spirit of the British Empire.
There’s a strong interactive element part of the show, with audience participation and Desai addressing them as though they too are involved in this conflict.
It also has musical numbers and there’s a narrator too, who also addresses the audience.
“It’s built into the script,” revealed Sircar. “Timewise, it moves backwards and forwards and it’s very relevant about today.
“We even talk about Gaza and there’s a projector used too.”
Gore has written ‘We are the Lions Mr Manager’ and the play first got a run out in 2017 and the latest has changed considerably.
Sircar said: “I learnt a lot from Neil too. It’s clear that the trade union movement in Britain didn’t have much experience with women strikers – leave alone South Asian women.”
Sircar emphasises the physical mismatch between the women and their adversaries – their bosses and the policemen on the picket line, who weren’t exactly friendly at the time.
“These tiny women in saris holding their placards and talking through their megaphones, it’s iconic because of all that – this hadn’t happened before. It was a new visual.
“This also took place at a time before Margaret Thatcher (Britain’s first woman prime minister, 1979-1990). There weren’t many women in politics.
“Jayaben herself was very passionate about women being involved; she was very insistent on the fact that Asian women should be heard and she’s deeply aware that culturally, South Asian women are not meant to be heard, they should be apologetic and deferential.
“She was against all that and she’s drawn a lot from her own upbringing and Indira Gandhi (Indian prime minister 1966-77 and 1980-84).”
Sircar herself came to Britain in 2021 to study after training at the National School of Drama in Delhi – regarded as offering among the very best education for someone wanting to be a professional actor in India.
A Bengali by roots, she has an MA in Professional Performance from Goldsmith’s University here and her previous recent stage credits, include Samir Bhamra’s popular musical, ‘Bombay Superstars’ and ‘Wanted’ by Gazebo Theatre. In this she played Phoolan Devi, who was the Indian woman outlaw turned MP, that inspired Shekhar Kapur’s film, ‘Bandit Queen’.
Sircar said the hardest part of the play is realising that we may well have all got closer to those much sharper periods in Britain.
“It’s very relevant to what’s going on today, where we live in this time where we are having all these anti-immigrant sentiments and it plays on your mind and it makes you wonder – ‘What is this world coming to?’ and embodying her, you appreciate how relevant her words still are,” said Sircar.
The show is produced by Townsend Theatre Productions which specialises in making political theatre.
Listing
‘We are the Lions Mr Manager’ continues its UK tour and heads to Southampton on Monday, November 24 7.30pm); Rotherhithe (SE16), London (Q&A, 6.45pm exhibition as well) Thursday and Friday (26&27); Willesden Green (London) on November 29; Stoke on Trent, December 1 and then Scotland tour (Dec 3-6) see here for all listings/ticket/more info: https://www.townsendproductions.org.uk/shows/we-are-the-lions-mr-manger/
