Jessica Harris watches a play about women and football at Birmingham Rep.
At the core of this play is the issue of injustice in women’s football, and the struggle that women footballers have faced in making the game their own. Centred around the Queensgate Football Club, Becky Deeks’ script follows the paths of five players. Each has a backstory, and all have faced personal challenges in playing the game they love. As the play develops, the support they provide to one another becomes clear. So do the problems which the women’s game is up against.
The first act is something of a slow-burn but throwaway lines reveal the women’s experiences, and foreshadow the drama of the second act. Apparently, we learn, the game has moved on over the years. Now women get paid a few quid to play – in the past they had to pay to play! If the women’s pitch is not fit to be played on, there is no chance of them being allowed to use the men’s. And, whilst the men have had new changing rooms, the women are in an unheated portacabin.
Behind all this is the unseen coach, although his presence is very much felt. Both his and the club manager’s powers appear to be unchallengeable. Today, the women’s team can play. Tomorrow, it can’t.
The second act produces more than we might have expected. Inequitable treatment has moved on to an instance of sexual assault, and the consequences of this reach well beyond the football pitch. Ultimately, the women must choose. It is a choice between continued subjection to men’s rules or finding a way to play on their own terms.
The production is high energy and fast-paced. Training and matches are played out through physicality. The drama of matches is heightened by pressure on the women to score, and by their awareness that any one of them might be replaced. The physical prowess and the footballing skills of the performers are a joy to see on stage.
Relationships between the women have a persuasive warmth. Each of them reads as unique, and yet all feel very human, very like the ordinary woman in the street. A little editing of the script could bring a bit more punch to each of their stories.
Becky Deeks has a knack for dialogue. She knows the language of the street and of the football pitch. The five performers are all strong on delivery and, for the most part, do justice to her script. There were, however, moments in the second act when the sheer quantity of lines they had to deliver made the play feel a little under-rehearsed.
The soundtrack adds a further level of energy to the production and it is fitting that it is mainly composed of women rappers.
The cast of Good for a Girl are: Gabi, Saskia Davis; Courtney, Gina Jamieson; Kim, Elizabeth Hope; Naomi, April Nerissa Hudson; Liv, Molly Walker.
Good for a Girl was written by Becky Deeks and directed by Lucy Wild. It is on at the Rep until 22nd February before going on tour and has an age guidance of 14+. For further information visit birmingham-rep.co.uk.
Pics – Nicola Young
