Review: Good for Her!, The Other Palace

Good for Her!, written and performed by Mollie Semple, is a raw and uncompromising exploration of a woman through many lenses. Iris is a bright, impassioned and expressive young person. She shares complex facets of being a woman in today’s society. With thoughtful and insightful writing, Semple exposes the many layers of influence that shape Iris’ self-awareness, perceptions of success and the inevitable comparisons with others of similar age and background. Her daily focus of stalking past classmate, Alice, on social media is compelling. The ongoing, pained comparisons of success, both personally and professionally, is stark.

Semple is visceral in presenting Iris to us. She embodies the impact of a young person being told they are “like an elephant, when dancing” or they are to be written out of a TV series as their body responds to hormonal changes and develops a bust. Iris seeks to absorb each slight, each change, with cheerful pragmatism, whilst clearly hurt by the personal onslaughts. In forthright, open and conversational style we learn of the emotional wounding by a needy mother, her toxic co-dependency with Iris; the anticipated achievements, financial gain and intense disappointment when career aspirations are not met.

Together with director Kayla Stokes, Semple changes tempo, focus and humour to give texture. Stokes and Semple vary delivery through the interchanges of recorded voice-overs, video clips and Google search bars with almost unthinkable content.

At this performance the sound was occasionally too loud, causing Iris’ narration to be lost. Similarly, some of the text projected onto a textured wall was difficult to read/understand, leaving audience members either as perplexed or in a separate group who’d seen the text and could appreciate the intention and subsequent humour.

In today’s world of well-paid influencers and paradoxical celebrity status, pressure from parents, families and friends may cause a depth of mental anguish. The stress upon young Iris to perform, achieve and indeed earn sufficiently to pay household bills and sustain the aspirational lifestyle of her mother is exacting; the depth of parental disapproval when her career stalls is excruciating. The use of voice-over to depict the mother cleverly creates the possibility for each audience member to recognise a family member or friend who creates similar pressured environments for the young people in their circles.

The depth of characterisation and pace at which Semple performs is intense. Good for Her! would benefit from a slower delivery reducing the number of times words are stumbled over or misspoken. It is nonetheless an intelligent piece of writing that captures the ease at which a loving circle of care develops barbs, causes wounds and has long term damage and tragic outcomes for each protagonist.

With its ironic ending, Good for Her! will have some audience members immune to the depth of individual accountability for shaping a young person’s life. Others will leave smug, certain that they have no-one in their circle who could possibly be so narcissistic. The rest of us check our phone capacity, urgently messaging our young people to seek time to discuss and reflect on perceptions of solid familial relationships. Rather than leaving a taste of ‘second hand embarrassment’, we are gifted the opportunity to re-evaluate our relationships and how we may inadvertently (or deliberately) influence and affect those around us.

Produced, written and performed by Mollie Semple
Directed by Kayla Stokes
Sound Design by Lonnie Ro Wade

Good for Her! runs at The Other Palace until Saturday 26 July.