New play about pioneering women of police force coming to Leyland

A Force To Be Reckoned With, L-R Rachel Hammond, Eddie Ahrens, Harvey Badger, Hannah Baker Pic: Robling Photography

A play about pioneering women of the police force is coming to Leyland.

To celebrate their 51^st year of touring, Mikron Theatre is performing playwright Amanda Whittington’s new play A Force To Be Reckoned With.

The arresting story, told with original music and a fast-paced script, captures a century of change as it explores the story of the pioneering women of the British Police.

A spokesperson for Mikron Theatre said: “With a handbag, whistle and a key to the Police Box, WPC Iris Armstrong is ready for whatever the mean streets of a 1950s market town throws at her. Fresh from police training school, she prepares for her first day on the beat. The reality is very different. Stuck at the station, she soon finds her main jobs are typing and making brews.

“Iris joins forces with fellow ‘girl in blue’ WPC Ruby Roberts. They’re an unlikely partnership. A two-girl department, called to any case involving women and children, from troublesome teens to fraudulent fortune tellers. What starts as ‘women’s work’ soon becomes a specialist role. Iris finds she’s earning her place in a historic force to be reckoned with. Along the way, she discovers the Edwardian volunteers who came before her, a lineage of Suffragettes-turned-moral enforcers and the secrets that the police box hides.”

Playwright Amanda Whittington said about her new play: “I’m delighted to be back at Mikron in their 51st year with A Force to be Reckoned With.

“The play takes a light-hearted look at the lives of Women Police Constables in the 1950s, celebrating their spirit, optimism and heroic efforts to break the glass ceiling without a truncheon.”

Hosted by Leyland Historical Society, the play is on at the Civic Centre in West Paddock on Monday 2 October at 7.30pm.

Tickets are £12 and are available by calling 01772 641604.

For more information, visit the Leyland Historical Society website.