Chopped Liver and Unions (no it’s not a spelling mistake) is a fascinating one-woman show which tells the story of activist Sara Wesker. If her name sounds familiar that is because Sara was the aunt of acclaimed Jewish playwright Arnold Wesker, famous for his play Chicken Soup and Barley.
The title, Chopped Liver and Unions, is a nod to Arnold Wesker’s play, in which the character Sarah was inspired by the story of his aunt Sara, who campaigned tirelessly for the rights for workers.
Until now Sara’s story has remained largely untold.
“I only heard about Sara, by chance, when I was performing a different play and, at the end of the performance, someone said to me why don’t you write something about Sara Wesker,” says Lottie Walker who runs Blue Fire Theatre and who stars in the show.
“I knew nothing about her, and it took a great deal of detective work to uncover the story of her work. In those days the newspapers tended to quote the words of male rather than female campaigners” Lottie explains.
Set in the 1920s, the play skilfully blends music and song to recount the story of Sara, who was the driving force behind the strikes in the garment factories of London’s East End. With banners written in lipstick she led the female seamstresses to organise themselves and to strike for fairer wages. At Goodman’s trouser factory in 1926, where she worked as a machinist, she led the 600 strong, all-female workforce in a walkout demanding they be paid at least a farthing to make a pair of trousers that would be sold for ten times this amount.
“The men making trousers in the factories were called tailors but the women were just seamstresses,” Lottie says. “It explains so much. No-one acknowledged or accepted that the women were as good as, and in many cases better than, the male workers. And of course after work it was the women who had to run the homes and look after the family.
“Sarah was a brave woman. The striking workers used to tour London singing songs to raise money and when we managed to source the words of the fighting songs sadly there was none of the music. Then someone contacted me to say they had a book with all the music for the songs and the performance began to evolve.
The songs form the backbone of the play – a biographical piece about Sarah’s life.
“I spoke to the Wesker family and pieced together the story of this tiny woman who was larger than life. She believed passionately in her cause and fought for rights for workers and, in particular, for women. She was tiny but when she spoke, she had the voice of six men, they told me.”
Chopped Liver and Unions is touring the UK.
