![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/9948-\u2013-Jessica-Baglow-Rosalyn-and-members-of-the-company-in-The-Ladies-Football-Club.-Photo-by-Johan.jpeg\")
Cast of The Ladies Football Club (Photo by Johan Persson)<\/p>\n\u201c\u2026an uplifting story of women overcoming adversity\u2026 against the systems that exploit them\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Cast of The Ladies Football Club (Photo by Johan Persson)<\/p>\n
The Ladies Football Club by\u00a0Stefano Massini adapted by\u00a0Tim Firth, Crucible Sheffield<\/p>\n
By Phil Scown<\/strong><\/p>\n Jazz plays while we wait for the start of act one. It seems at odds with both the subject of the play and the era of the Great War.\u00a0 Perhaps it\u2019s the theme of organised chaos that makes the jazz relevant, though we don\u2019t hear it again once the action starts. The set at the back of the stage is an array of thirty lights on a grey background.\u00a0It\u2019s not obviously football related, but it becomes a versatile asset once the story begins.<\/p>\n It\u2019s 1917.\u00a0The Great War has taken all the fit and able men and sent them to the Front.\u00a0Women have replaced them in the factories.\u00a0The women in this story all work in a Sheffield munitions factory. Some of the bombs they make are football shaped.\u00a0News from the Front is grim, the football news less so.\u00a0 Camaraderie keeps the women cheerful and binds them together. It\u2019s no surprise that the ladies take to the game of football.\u00a0They form their own team, and are soon engaged in matches against other teams, both men\u2019s and women\u2019s.\u00a0<\/p>\n The script is fast, funny, and often foul.\u00a0These women do swear a lot. I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s accurate for a Sheffield munitions factory during the Great War, or if it\u2019s anachronistic, but it works. We laugh along, we root for the team.\u00a0The cast, a team of eleven ladies plus ensemble, each have their own role to play, their individual contribution to make.\u00a0Violet (Cara\u00a0Theobold) is the charismatic leader, who grew up on Corker St with her friend Rosalyn (Jessica\u00a0Baglow) always put in goal by her brothers, but that stands her in good stead. There\u2019s Justine (Anne\u00a0Odeke) the single, liberated woman in a factory of women whose husbands are at war.\u00a0Abigail (Charley Webb) timid and prescient, doesn\u2019t want to play, but does. Olivia (Bettrys\u00a0Jones) with her encyclopaedic collection of knowledge and sayings, gleaned from the stock of the family newsagents.\u00a0Cheryl (Krupa\u00a0Pattani) represents invisible women.\u00a0Penelope (Chanel\u00a0Waddock) talks \u2018penelopese\u2019 that no one else can understand. Briana (Ellie Leach) feels herself to be the embodiment of Joan of Arc. Berenice (Lesley Hart) the not so sober daughter of a Scottish minister provides irreverent commentary on men.\u00a0 Hayley (Leah\u00a0Brotherhead) is the militant lefty, plays left wing, and brings overtly political themes to the story.\u00a0Last, but not least, is Melanie (Clair Norris) the big, dour, left back.\u00a0 I think that\u2019s right, apologies if I\u2019ve crossed my wires.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sport is always difficult for the choreography department.\u00a0 Showing dynamic action and fast moving objects convincingly is tricky.\u00a0Some matches are shown in slo-mo.\u00a0It is more engaging when the ball is not present, showing the movement of the players. The trajectory of a moving ball is tricky to convey.\u00a0 The matches, with a real leather football, are dynamic.\u00a0Goals are scored, there are fouls.\u00a0Goals are disallowed, due to the ever-cursed offside infraction.\u00a0These women know their limits and there is no attempt to explain the offside rule.<\/p>\n There is a problem with the sound.\u00a0It isn\u2019t always possible to catch every word of dialogue.\u00a0There were no obvious microphones on the cast, maybe that is the cause of the problem. This may benefit aesthetics, and make movement easier, but those gains are at the expense of clear dialogue.\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite the set\u2019s initial plain appearance, the lighting department (Ben Jacobs) puts it to good use. The grey background is used as a canvas onto which is projected the workings of the factory, broader cityscapes, pitch positions and goal posts.\u00a0With the choreography, we are moved to different locations.<\/p>\n The Ladies Football Club is an uplifting story of women overcoming adversity, coming together as a team, a team united against the systems that exploit them. Politics is shown to be bound up with work and play.\u00a0Bosses support the women when it is politic to do so, but only when it serves them. The capitalist system exploits them at work.\u00a0The patriarchal system exploits them both at work and at play, putting men above them whenever it can. The final whistle blows for the Ladies Football Team with the end of the war.\u00a0 Their jobs are taken from them, and the FA withdraws its support.\u00a0We already knew how the story would end.\u00a0It\u2019s only in recent years, a century after the events of the story, that women\u2019s football has burgeoned and been supported.\u00a0The play closes with a life history of each of the women and their lifetime achievements, and the handing of the baton to present-day girls who will take that baton, run with it and play with all the enthusiasm of their great, great grandmothers who broke the ground.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/xWeb_Photo_Editor-19.jpg.pagespeed.ic.P1BWyWkGx6.jpg\")
Cast of The Ladies Football Club (Photo by Johan Persson)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/5412-\u2013-L-R-Krupa-Pattani-Cheryl-Ellie-Leach-Brianna-Anne-Odeke-Justine-Bettrys-Jones-Olivia-in-The-L.jpeg\")
Cast of The Ladies Football Club (Photo by Johan Persson)<\/p>\n