The Ladies Football Club, Written by Stefano Massini and adapted by Tim Firth, is a beautiful, emotionally charged retelling of a women’s football club formed during World War One right here in Sheffield!
The mix of personalities across the eleven, all female, characters really highlighted the struggles and pressures put upon women in the early 20th century, whilst nodding to popular political ideals at the time and what a women’s role was expected to be whilst their male family members were off at war. From Violet, who initiates the first game of football during the factory’s lunch break, to Olivia’s wisdom from newspapers and magazines, Justine’s desire for love and Hayley’s staunch Marxists ideals – this play really highlights how a group of people can put their differences aside in solidarity to achieve something groundbreaking and enlightening during such uncertain times.
The stage at the Crucible is right in the center of the audience, with oval sections of the stage lighting up to highlight certain characters and illuminate the choreography during the football games themselves. The sequences in the match scenes were beautifully done, with the ball being passed through delicately crafted sequences, further highlighting how their football successes were achieved through every member of the team equally.
The play itself comes to an unfortunate end, with the football club being disbanded after the war is ended, with both the characters and most of the audience tearing up at such an unnecessary end of an essential era for women’s football.
However, the play finishes with each character standing up on the tables in the workroom of the Walker&Doyle factory, telling the stories of their future after the war, the majority living successful, fulfilling lives but being haunted by the future in football that could’ve. The most emotional part was Violet’s speech, where at the end her young granddaughter is introduced, wearing a Lioness football kit, reinstalling the current and future successes of contemporary women’s football.
This was a genuinely wonderful play; balancing fact politically, historically and socially whilst bringing these inspirational women to life. The Ladies Football Club gave me so much insight into the origin of women’s football and the many barriers in the way of women’s sport in general. I have never been so grateful and proud of women in sport today and left the theatre in tears. I would encourage everyone, especially young women and minority groups in sport, to see this play which is both geographically and historically important. I haven’t seen a play quite like this before with both the storyline and the technical aspects of the play executed so well – I would do anything to see this play again for the first time!
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
