A musical about the women workers of a former bomb factory in Ardeer is set to hit the stage this spring.
The Girls of Cartridge Hut No.7, penned by Saltcoats-born playwright Jack Dickson, will feature toe-tapping and thought-provoking hits like 'Nitroglycerin Rap', 'The Dinnamite Song', and 'Maggie's Song' at the Ardeer Community Centre next month.
Nobel’s (later ICI) at Ardeer, one of the world’s largest explosives and chemical, first opened in 1834 and employed almost 13,000 people at its peak.
The story focuses on the young women workers who manufactured sticks of dynamite and begins with the 1884 explosion that killed 10 women; the youngest being 14.
Four of the victims were women working in Cartridge Hut No.7. Management went on to blame the explosion on the dead girls.
100 years on The Girls of Cartridge Hut No.7 tell their story of a community tied to the plant until its final closure in the 1990s.
Playwright Jack said: "I'm keen to make sure the production is rooted in the local community and I've spent the last few years talking and learning from those who worked at the Ardeer ICI plant.
"It’s important that the play connects to a younger generation whose parents, grandparents and relatives worked there.
"The Nobel’s / ICI factory complex at Ardeer was an integral aspect of this area’s economic and social fabric for well over 150 years.
"And now, for better or worse, we all live in the shadow of this once mighty, but now abandoned industrial site.
"Weekday matinee performances for local schools are planned and hopefully, students will come away with a clearer understanding of where we are now and how we got here in terms of local history."
Internationally-acclaimed director Mary McCluskey and award-winning composer Hilary Brooks of Sunshine on Leith and Glasgow Girls have signed on for the project.
Tickets cost £5 and will run from Monday, May 2 to Saturday, May 7.
Buy your tickets here.
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