Hastings friends on the Eastbourne stage in celebration of war-time bravery

SussexWorld

Great friends Rosalind Steele and Laura Matthews – both based in Hastings – will be sharing the stage in Eastbourne as they hit the road with Katherine Senior’s new play Spitfire Girls.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Greek Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Really lovely

00:06to speak to Ros Dale. Now, Ros, you are on the road shortly, coming to Southampton and

00:12Eastbourne with a fascinating play, Spitfire Girls, which tells a bit of history that so

00:18many of us just won't know, will we? But importantly, as you were saying, it's a bit of history

00:23that shines a light on the incredible contribution that women made during World War Two.

00:28Absolutely. It was an incredibly brave, courageous group of women who learned how to fly

00:36aeroplanes of all different sizes and styles to help the war efforts by ferrying around

00:45planes in the Second World War. And very sadly, they were not allowed to fly after that period

00:53as well. So it's a very, very narrow window of opportunity for women to really show what

00:58they could do. And yeah, it's a really, really fascinating bit of history.

01:03And you are one of these pilots, are you?

01:06Yes, yes, indeed. The story also follows the experience of two sisters and their relationship

01:12and how it changes during their experience of being in the Air Transport Auxiliary, the ATA.

01:19And really, really nicely, your sister, your on-stage sister, is one of your great mates.

01:25Yeah, yeah, it's a real treat to be on stage with her. It's really fantastic. We have worked

01:30together before, but it's been a while.

01:33And that's Laura Matthews we're talking about. In fact, you trained together, didn't you?

01:37We did, yeah. Laura and I were both at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School

01:41in the very early thousands. So a while ago now.

01:49We've been friends ever since. Yeah. And in fact, she was the reason that I moved down to Hastings.

01:54She persuaded me down.

01:56And you do fly the flag for Hastings. You love the place, don't you?

01:59I do. I talk obviously on how much I love Hastings.

02:03What's it got that London didn't have?

02:06The sea, for one, and just a level of welcoming and friendliness and community

02:15that I was really missing. I definitely feel like I'm part of the community in Hastings.

02:21That's interesting, because so many actors do sort of give that impression of,

02:24I must be in London, must be in London. But you've moved beyond that then.

02:28I think COVID changed a lot of that. I think a lot of people realised that we didn't have to be

02:33in the big cities. And it can be awkward. I did have to move back to London for a year to do a job

02:41in theatre there. But I think, yeah, just a better work-life balance often means

02:48living somewhere that you don't have to be running the rat race all the time.

02:54So being part of the reward for being in Hastings is that one of the dates on tour

02:58is just up the road in Eastbourne with the play, isn't it?

03:00Yeah, it's going to be really nice to play near home ground, if not on home ground,

03:05certainly a good opportunity for friends and family to come and see us there.

03:09And anyone else, of course, come and see us in Eastbourne.

03:13Brilliant. Well, really lovely to speak to you and to meet you,

03:16and I hope it goes fantastically well. Thanks for your time.

03:19Great. Thanks so much, Phil.

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