Spotlight on Good Women Arts: THE GOOD WOMEN
Let’s hear it for Good Women Arts, a theatre company founded by Faith McCune, Lena Liedl, and Sophie Marsden during their days at East 15 Acting School. Since its inception, this company has been on a mission: to bring women’s voices to the stage…
Their latest production, “The Good Women”, isn’t your average show. Inspired by real women, the story follows a queer couple in the swinging 60s battling against political repression in a socially conservative Switzerland. Bette (McCune) is the host of a cooking show led by a sexist man. Trudy (Liedl) is unable to work unless she gets written authorisation from her estranged, abusive husband…
So, ‘why a show about Swiss women's right to vote in the 1960s?’ you might wonder. It all started when the team came across a Swiss newspaper article about a cookbook, the two women who wrote it, and their fight for women’s suffrage. What began as pure curiosity morphed into a two-year research odyssey🧳, immersing the team in the sociohistorical context. The extensive research ranged from recreating Bette's recipes to delving into Swiss queer magazines from the 1930s onwards…
Reflecting on the story’s creative process and its dance between the private and the political, the team tells us: “The focus is always on the relationship. It’s all about two women and their everyday lives. The political side is bubbling underneath and defines the circumstances in which their story happens.”
Rummaging through the archives enabled the team to recreate the 20th century in a way that felt accurate yet relevant to today. The sexist remarks the trio encountered during the play’s development in drama school, including demands to prepare tea to “practice” for their roles (#truestory), fuelled their determination to work mindfully within an all-female creative team, challenging the status quo in a male-led industry. “The majority of plays performed in the UK are written by men”, they point out, ”which is probably why our male colleagues found our project so provocative.”
Busy times lie ahead for Good Women Arts. Following The Good Women’s debut at #VAULTFestival in 2023, the team is touring the show through the UK & Ireland in 2024. The journey kicks off in Belfast & Dublin this January. And for those yearning for more, they have a new play and a food-inspired short film in the works. So buckle up; this trio is here to stay!