One of the great classics of contemporary Scottish theatre, Tony Roper’s The Steamie tells of Glaswegian housewives who meet at the local launderette in the tough years after the Second World War, on Hogmanay 1950.
There’s a stoic determination about them, and the easiest way through is with lots of humour and gossip.
A Hogmanay staple
Premiered onstage in 1987, the play achieved much wider fame when the televised version became a Scottish Hogmanay staple.
The play still does great business in the country of its birth. Pre-pandemic it had a revival at Glasgow’s huge Hydro, while Dundee Rep’s imminent production is specially timed to celebrate the 35th anniversary.
“I always try and start with how (a revived play) is relevant to now and why we should do it again,” says Becky Hope-Palmer, the director of the Rep’s version.
“A lot of The Steamie for me is to do with the community aspect of it, and the role these women take in life after a big shift in the world.
“The war had just finished, and all these women were picking up the pieces and dealing with a lot of trauma from that – from the men that had been in the war, but also the poverty of it and the responsibility in the household.
Echoes in today’s society
‘You can’t help but compare that now to the role of women during and post-pandemic, and how they’ve had to work in the home.
“The childcare and the housework is unpaid work, and it’s become a massive part of women’s responsibility again, so it really made me think about those unspoken duties women have.
“You can’t mess with the script and the rhythms of it, and you shouldn’t want to, but in terms of everything surrounding it, I’ve been trying to bring out that truth.’
The beauty of The Steamie is that it can be approached with a social eye like this, while still, as Hope-Palmer points out, bringing out “everything that people love about the Steamie, which are the set pieces, the jokes, the music (by Dave Anderson) and everything on top of that.”
One of the few women directors
Hope-Ryder, who was raised in Edinburgh and studied theatre in Glasgow, has never seen The Steamie onstage, but she studied it at school and knows the onscreen version. She’s one of the few women to have directed it.
Between us, Alison Peebles is the only other example we can think of.
“I’m in my early thirties, so I’m in between the two youngest of the characters,” she says.
“When I was at school reading it and performing it, you don’t really understand the depth of some of those women’s conversations.
“But as someone who is big into my family, the play does make you reflect on your own life and how women play a role in the family unit.
“We’re all women (in the rehearsal room), so our stories get quite anecdotal when we’re discussing it,” she says.
Irene Macdougall, Jo Freer, Suzanne Magowan and Tinashe Marikandwa will be joined by lone man Ewan Donald.
“The beauty of it is, it feels like people you just met on the street. I compared it the other day to watching reality TV, in that sense it feels like you’re opening a door into people’s lives, you’re jumping in for a bit and then leaving them to it. I love that about it.”
- The Steamie is at Dundee Rep from this Saturday, August 13, until Saturday September 10.www.dundeerep.co.uk
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