“A comedy-thriller about ambition and womanhood”
Good For Her! follows 27-year-old Iris as she aspires to become successful in her acting career. However, alongside her fear of failure, she must contend with a multitude of hindrances – the abrupt end to her career as a child actor, her body image, the obsessive stalking of an old classmate on Instagram, and the passive aggression of her ailing mother. Written and performed by Mollie Semple, the play explores the ambitions and frustrations of women attempting to achieve recognition, not just in their professional careers, but also in their personal lives.
Semple has a Bridget Jones quality about her – iconic, painfully relatable, and adept at social commentary. Iris’s rambles about her insecurities and the feud she has with her mother, whom she cannot help but still love immensely, are coupled with a series of hilarious Google searches projected onto the thin curtains on stage (e.g. “how to speed up terminal illness”). Her presence is hugely enjoyable. She makes Iris’s words sharp without them being cringy or off-putting; rather, the show feels intimate, almost conversational.
Good For Her! brilliantly delves into the concept of rebellion among women. Though they instinctively crave the validation of both their appearance and their actions, they also desire to break free from the shackles of expectation placed upon them. Iris only wins her freedom at the end of the play, having spent every moment until then facing disappointment after disappointment. But Semple knows that even putting her chagrin into words is a form of defiance. Good For Her! is well-written, angry as all hell while still being truthful. The anger does not quite spill over; it just simmers, and speaking about it is a relief.
The play’s sound design was also rather striking. For the most part, nothing could be heard but Semple’s voice, which was as it should be. But during the more intense, rageful moments, there was an eerie, repetitive score that crept up on the audience members. Sound designer Lonnie Ro Wade knows exactly how to create sounds that match the story and the character of Good For Her! – subtle at first, but then we register that the sound is there, and then it gets louder, and angrier, and more assertive. The sounds enhance the genius of this play.
Mollie Semple is great at writing dark humour, as well as perfectly imperfect characters. Kudos to all involved with Good For Her!, and I wish Semple even bigger success!
Suitable for ages 14+.