Good for a Girl at Birmingham Rep Review

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Wed 19 Feb 2025 - Sat 22 Feb 2025

The title of this new play by Becky Deeks is inspired by the often patronising and dismissive way women’s activities and sports are referred to - as if females can only achieve so much.

Deeks is keen to show that, given the right resources and support, women can aim and reach so much higher than society frequently gives them credit for. Deeks displays her heart on her sleeve. As a firm soccer fan and a girl who played football, she wants to celebrate women’s football but also shine a light on the difficulties they frequently face.

The show begins in the locker room of a non-professional local team where the women are celebrating their successes. We quickly learn they are striving for the top, progressing through the FA Cup competition and their league - but it is not without sacrifice.



All of the women are balancing the sport and its demands with the necessities of life and are not helped by the fact they are clearly seen as second best to the men’s team. With a changing room whose heating has been broken for months, a pitch full of stones and minimal income, the success of the team is down to the women’s determination rather than the support of the club.

Deeks spends a bit of time setting the scene and then the knocks start coming – and boy do they come. A crucial team member is injured, another faces a family illness, and another is dropped from the team for mysterious reasons. As the team face increasing pressure on the pitch in the race for the FA Cup so too they are dealing with immense difficulties off the pitch. This leads to breakdowns in relationships between couples, between friends, between the team and the management and even between team members.

Good for a Girl is based partly on Deeks' own experience and also on research she undertook with women footballers in which she gathered a host of stories. It is also supported by Her Game Too, which aims to support women in football and challenge sexism in the game.

But in Deeks’ desire to include so many different experiences the risk is that each potential problem bumps into each other and none are fully investigated. Issues including the sexual assault of a player, the disintegration of a family, and the effects of an injury on someone whose entire life revolves around sport could each make a play on their own and by bunching them all together there is a sense we are missing out on a more in-depth exploration of each.

That said, Deeks is also keen to show us the positive in which we can’t help but admire the women’s tenacity and resourcefulness as well as their solid loyalty to each other. Despite their conflicts, they maintain a united front on the pitch which filters back into the locker room.

Portraying sport on the stage is always challenging because of the confined space and the fact we are watching actors rather than the sporting elite but Lucy Wild, who is director and movement director, gives it a good go. The stylized on-pitch action in the FA Cup games is really effective with us gaining a sense of the drama of the game and works much better than the training sessions where the team are kicking a ball back and forth.



Laura O’Connell has designed a set which represents the locker room but can be easily moved and adapted while the lockers are incredibly useful for bringing props on and off the stage. Sound designer Clive Meldrum makes good use of music giving us pounding rhythms to remind us of the pulse and adrenaline of sport but more haunting melodies when we see the heartbreak some of the women are facing.

The cast of five are all very strong with Elizabeth Hope full of energy as the ever-encouraging Kim and Saskia Davis packing the emotion but also the humour into the wry but caring Gabi. Deeks interestingly keeps the two male characters in the story, the coach and club manager, off the stage so the focus is firmly on the women.

Deeks’ appreciation for women’s football and those who continue to compete despite all the obstacles comes through every pore of this production and we leave on a high, full of the hopes and aspirations of this small group of women who, despite all the odds, turn up week in, week out, to kick a ball about and aim for the top.

Good for a Girl plays The Door at Birmingham Rep until 22 February and then tours, see here for more information.

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