W

Anna Sokolova
3 hours ago
3 min read

Old Fitz Theatre 29 May - 19 June 2026, Sydney

The review

W is the one in AFLW, the Women's Football League.

It is about women in the high-ranking team, united by a common dream and a hard path each of them climbed to fulfil it.

Interesting that this season is rich in work where sport is a lens to look at the lives of women,

The Contest by the Space Jump Theatre @flightpaththeatre and Fair Play by the Lost Thought Company @oldfitztheatre. None of them are sweet and soapy; all three worlds, though different, are equally sharp, unapologetic, feminist, and strong.

“W” is a slick, content, physically intense, graphically detailed work. The scenes are directed sharply and precisely, swinging between the chats and training, constantly shifting focus between glimpses into personal insights and field performance. The only inclusions of sculpture-like, slow-moving poses, like game snapshots, yet picturesque, not convincing; they disrupt the rhythm.

The costumes, orange and blue uniform, looked perfectly in unison with the set design, bright lockers and shelves in the elaborately set-up change room. The entire play is concentrated in this space, where the mood is created by a quite provocative, funky, perfectly suited soundtrack and rich lighting. It is a little hive where five women bring both sides of their worlds - the real life which must be left behind before the game, and on the other side of the gate - the game itself, a set of contests, a sleep path they concur towards the finals, the ultimate win.

There is no continuous narrative in the plot. In contrast, it is stitched from fragments of stories, collisions, trips, and wins of each from the team. One player (Ally Morgan) just got back to the game after a break, having a child, constantly brings kids' nonsense funny stories with her. Rosie, the captain (Shannon Ryan), and her partner (Grace Smibert), also her teammate, are a couple heavily pushing through the hurdles to get a baby - a task posing harsh questions - age, sacrifices, career, the game, their relationship at the end. The youngest, extremely talented player (Celeste Cortes-Davis), who joined the team for the first season, spiky as a hedgehog, often disrespectful, just guarding herself, unleashed on the field, ambitious to the point of breathlessness. She is not noticing that her very existence and potential, just the time she still has, hurts Rosie way too strongly. Yes, their lives are scattered, but once they are together, they are bound by the target which they shoot unmistakably again and again, coached by a tough, sharp-tongued, hilarious, not obvious at first but deeply caring trainer, Sue (amazing, amongst a marvelously working cast, Danielle Cormack). Sue is a rough but fair force, as passionate as her team, but burning with more fury, more power. “My mom got me my first pair of boots; my dad put them to microwave” - the only quick passage she allowed herself to open up, when her team started to crumble up, to lose it under pressure. With her usual way, she is priceless - and inspiring too, yelling something like: “You may be fixed in your life outside, but out there you are destroyers!” “You can be fans of BDSM in your bedroom, but on the field, you are not to allow yourself to be tortured!”

This play, heavily embedded in the sports world, is a framework for a messy ball of wider questions. These women are neither asking for pity nor even for compassion. They are all there to claim their spot, each pushing through like a brave solo explorer through entangled, uninvited bushes to reach an ambitious mark. And you know what? It is a clear reflection of each of us, women who might not be a part of elite sport, but who are brave to have a wish, a dream, a target. Women who need an occasional feeling of belonging to a team to share a deep joy of satisfaction, or at times to hear Sue’s voice, with her “and now go there and fight!”