There is trouble at the checkouts. The staff gossip, argue, laugh, cry and attempt to sort out their complicated love lives while their supermarket prepares for a singles night. At the centre of Checkout Girls is shy Shelly, who dreams of singing but must overcome her nerves, difficult colleagues and an agoraphobic mother before she can finally take her chance. When she does make it to the Freshways Supermarket Singles Night, everybody discovers there is rather more to quiet Shelly than they had given her credit for.
All Saints Elton Theatre Company presented Louise Roche’s feel-good comedy from Thursday 23rd to Saturday 25th March 2023.
Set around the wonderfully unglamorous world of supermarket checkouts, Checkout Girls mixes comedy, friendship, relationships and popular music. There are no sweeping palaces or mysterious castles here. There are tills, customers, colleagues and the sort of conversations that become surprisingly personal when you have been sitting beside somebody for an eight-hour shift.
Shelly is surrounded by a collection of colleagues with opinions about practically everything, including one another. As preparations for the supermarket singles night gather pace, their relationships become increasingly tangled.
Underneath all the laughs is a warm story about confidence and being underestimated. Shelly begins as somebody other people are quick to dismiss. Finding the courage to perform gives her the chance to show everyone what she can really do.
It is a comedy about ordinary people in an ordinary workplace where, naturally, absolutely nobody behaves ordinarily for very long.
For audiences in Bury, our March 2023 production offered plenty of laughter, familiar characters and music, with enough supermarket drama to make your weekly shop feel positively peaceful afterwards.