The Good Women Tours Ireland And The UK In 2024

“The poignant two-hander depicts burgeoning love against the backdrop of political struggle. The romcom plot balances witty humour, social injustice and emancipation.”

“The Good Women” has made a remarkable journey: After its critically acclaimed premiere at VAULT Festival, a transfer to Greenwich Theatre and a sold-out Ireland tour, the show comes to Bradford in April 2024.

Funny, romantic, heart-felt, it tells a queer love story set against the backdrop of the Swiss suffragette movement of the 1960s (Swiss women did not get the vote until 1971). “We found this old Swiss cookbook and discovered that the two women who wrote it had a very interesting life story. So we created a play inspired by them”, says director Sophie Marsden. “My family is from Bradford, so it is very special to bring the show here.”

The play is the second collaboration of Marsden with Northern-Irish actor Faith McCune (Bette), Austrian actor and writer Lena Liedl (Trudy), who all met at East 15 Acting School. Installation and textile artist Chloé Rochefort joins as set and costume designer.

Welcome to Zürich 1967. While elsewhere hippies celebrate free love, protesters take the streets against the Vietnam war and The Beatles and Janis Joplin are rising to fame, Swiss women still don't even have the vote.

Inspired by two real women, “The Good Women” tells the story of Bette and Trudy: Bette is the host of a popular TV cooking show and has settled for a life predictable solitude and regional TV stardom. Trudy is a housewife with an obsession for Bette's TV show and a mild alcohol problem (both of which she would strongly deny). When they run into each other, they question their life choices, politics, sexualities and what it means to be "a good woman" in a society that denies them the most basic human rights.

You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll meet two extraordinary women.