Striking female workers are the subject of this British musical with a conscience.

Students from the University of Chichester portray the conditions which led to the women who worked in the Bryant and May match factory in East London to walk out in 1888.

The musical focuses on the lifestyle of the match cutters at the Bow factory and the imposing and threatening regime in which they were forced to work.

Their callous and uncaring employer is represented by factory foreman Mr Mynel with much of the action centred around the fictional, and misleadingly, named Hope Court.

The bitter dispute was turned into a musical slice of social history in the Sixties by British actor Bill Owen and songwriter Tony Russell. Its premiere was at the Globe Theatre in London in 1966.  

Owen was best known for his role as Compo in the long-running sitcom Last of the Summer Wine. But he also had a successful second career in the 1960s as a songwriter.

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