Qwerty: The Musical - Synopsis (page 1/4)

The year is 1982 – the year of the Falklands, the year when Britain’s first woman prime minister consolidates her grip on power. But not every female is up there on top. In the fictitious town of Castlefield a diverse group of unemployed women – Frankie, Susan, Sandra, Sally, Pat, Jenny, Liz, and Ann – are joining a government-funded retaining course in shorthand and typing. They are looking for a better life at the grandly named and tallest building in town.

But the classes are run by Mrs Baslow, a gross, hypocritical woman whose real aim is to take advantage of government grants to provide a tacky, cut-price course that would normally take a year but has been whittled down to three months. There are too few textbooks, the typewriters are old and decrepit, and there is no heating in the damp classrooms.

As Mrs Baslow’s ‘girls’ get to know each other, we too get to know something about their background.