Exploring the challenges women faced in rock - Rock Follies in Chichester

Playing Dee is Angela Marie Hurst whose theatre includes The Lion King (Lyceum Theatre); Tina; The Tina Turner Musical (Aldwych Theatre); Motown The Musical (Shaftesbury Theatre); and West Side Story (Salzburg Festival).

For Angela this is all a fabulous new discovery: “I don't remember the 1970s. I wasn't quite around! It is a little bit before my time but I did a lot of research and asking questions and I'm a huge fan of the music, things like Earth Wind And Fire and Chaka Khan and lots of soul music. There is something about that music that I really love, that guttural rawness in the voice that speaks to a deep, deep side of joy and pain.”

And that's what Rock Follies will tap into: “It's the story of these friends who get together to set up The Little Ladies, a British rock band that is female that faces all the challenges that are put in front of them as women. But it's all about their energy and how they navigate it all. Obviously it's coming out of the 60s and 50s and obviously the 50s were a time of liberation for women but not really so much in music. There were still so many obstacles that women faced in rock.

“I love my character Dee. I fall more and more in love with Dee every day. Dee is quite a stubborn one. She just wants to rock out. She just wants to let her voice shine and she wants to feel the freedom from the restrictions. She does anything that she can but there are so many obstacles and some of them are within her. She is dealing with her own relationship. She is living in a commune and she has got all these ideals but she is quite conflicted because she wants to shine her own light as well as share with these ideals. In a way her story is not dissimilar to Chaka Khan's. I think she wanted to have more of her own voice as well and she decided to go into rock and singing as well for those kinds of reasons. It is very much about that desire to have your own voice conflicting with the movement that you were part of.

“And I'm loving it. There is a lot of information going on in rehearsals and a lot of creativity and a lot of moving parts. Usually I've come into a musical where everything is already set but with this one we're actually creating it – off the back of great guidance. But we're finding more and more about it every day and it's just really exciting to do.”

Part of that excitement is the fact that this will be her first time in Chichester. Speaking from rehearsals she said: “I haven't been there yet and I just can't wait. We're looking forward to it so much.”

Based on the television series written by Howard Schuman; book by Chloë Moss; songs by Howard Schuman and Andy Mackay. Rock Follies is based on an original idea of the Rock Bottom Group.