Women Sharing the Spotlight: Plays Carried by Women

When fantastic female leads take to the stage together, theatre magic unfolds! As a companion piece to our Women Sharing the Spotlight: Musicals Carried by Women article, below are great non-musical plays in which women lead the action. For plays and musicals featuring women only, check out Shows with All-Female Casts.

Becky Nurse of Salem by Sarah Ruhl (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dark Comedy / 4w, 3m)
A descendant of a woman accused of being a witch in Salem is now having struggles of her own. She looks to a local witch to help right her wrongs, but it only makes things worse. Becky Nurse of Salem offers a look at how times have changed, or not, for women in America. 

Begets: Fall of a High School Ronin by Qui Nguyen (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dark Comedy / 5w, 3m)
This story, set inside the halls of an all-American high school, tells the tale of Emi Edwards, a high school geek girl fighting to overthrow the cruel shoguns of her school. 

Bothered and Bewildered by Gail Young (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 5w, 3m)
This comedy-drama about one woman’s struggle with Alzheimer’s follows Irene and her daughters, Louise and Beth, as the girls lose their mum in spirit but not in body. 

Calendar Girls by Tim Firth (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 9w, 4m)
When Annie’s husband dies of leukemia, she and her best friend Chris resolve to raise money for a new settee in the local hospital waiting room. Calendar Girls is based on the true story of 11 women who posed nude for a calendar and whose profits went to the Leukemia Research Fund. 

Cheshire Cats by Gail Young (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 7w, 3m)
Audiences follow the Cheshire Cats team as they speedwalk their way to fundraising success in the London Moonwalk. Cheshire Cats is a cross between a girl’s night out and a real mission to support a cause close to many hearts, with plenty of laughs and a few tears along the way. 

Daisy Pulls It Off by Denise Deegan (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 18w, 2m)
Daisy Meredith, the new girl, is the first scholarship student to attend the Grangewood School for Girls. Daisy wins over her chums and saves the school when she cracks a secret code, finds a treasure and saves the life of her chief nemesis all in the same night!

Dance Nation by Clare Barron (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 9w, 2m)
Somewhere in America, an army of pre-teen competitive dancers plots to take over the world. If their new routine is good enough, they’ll claw their way to the top at Nationals in Tampa Bay. 

Dream of a Common Language by Heather Ruth Mcdonald (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama  /  3w, 2m, 1boy(s)
This intriguing, intelligent play was inspired by an actual incident: women were banned from the artists’ dinner to plan the first Impressionist painting exhibit in 1874, even though works by women were to be shown. In the play, the dinner is at the home of Victor, a successful artist, and his wife, Clovis, an artist who no longer paints. After helping with the preparations and being excluded from the dining room, Clovis devises a “women-only” dinner to be held outdoors.

English by Sanaz Toossi (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 4w, 1m)
It’s 2008, and four Iranians assemble in a TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) class in Karaj, Iran. When the class slowly devolves into a linguistic mess, some students cling tighter to their mother tongue while others embrace the possibilities of a new language. 

Foolish Fishgirls and The Pearl by Barbara Pease Weber (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 5w, 2m)
Two former deep sea divas, Coral and Oceana, didn’t exactly have the “happily ever after” storybook lives that the erstwhile mermaids envisioned. This feisty fairy tale explores life on dry land after true love is found, lost and found again. 

Four Old Broads by Leslie Kimbell (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 6w, 1m)
Magnolia Place Assisted Living is the home of retired burlesque queen Beatrice Shelton. Hilarity ensues as a collection of colorful residents, including Beatrice, try to solve a mystery and go on a planned cruise together. Also available for licensing: Four Old Broads on the High Seas (US/UK)

Geek! by Crystal Skillman (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 4w, 2m)
Teenage outcasts Dayna and Honey face pissed-off Pikachus, steampunk armies, stood-up Sailor Moons and rollerblading monsters at an Inferno-esque anime convention where the fans, the otakus and the geeks prowl. Also available for licensing: Geek! High School Edition (US/UK)

girl by Megan Mostyn-Brown (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 4w, 1m)
This play is about what it means to be a “girl” in this day and age. The girls exhibit great strength, revealing their vulnerabilities in language that is honest and extremely compelling. The play’s characters speak entirely in monologues. 

The Gut Girls by Sarah Daniels (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 6w, 2m)
Set in the “gutting” sheds at a cattle market in late Victorian England, this incisive drama shows working women at the bottom of the heap. When socially conscious “do-gooders” seek to make their unseemly work illegal, the “gut girls” are forced to seek other options. 

Jane Austen’s Lady Susan by Rob Urbinati (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 4w, 3m)
Lady Susan, a young widow, flees London and arrives at the country home of her obliging brother-in-law and his suspicious wife. Lady Susan schemes for position and wealth, but all does not go according to plan as she and her daughter become rivals for the same man. 

Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey by Matthew Francis (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 7w, 6m)
This dramatic adaptation of Jane Austen’s first novel wryly dramatizes the disparity between the heroine’s fantasy world of Gothic romance and mystery and the real world of England in the 1800s. It also captures Austen’s incomparable irony and acerbic comment in witty dialogue and narration. 

Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice by Andrew Davies (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 16w, 10m)
Adapted from Andrew Davies’ hit 1995 BBC TV series, this delightful comedy of manners revolves around the tumultuous relationship between Elizabeth Bennet, the lively and mischievous daughter of a gentleman from the country, and Darcy, a wealthy and proud lord. Also available for licensing: Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice by Helen Jerome (US)

Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility by Jen Taylor (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 8w, 6m)
The happy lives of the Dashwood sisters are dramatically changed in the wake of their father’s death. While misfortune challenges them, love alights: the very sensible Elinor falls for the equally cautious Edward Ferrars, while the flighty sensibilities of Marianne flutter ill-advisedly to the handsome, reckless neighbor John Willoughby. 

Laughs in Spanish by Alexis Scheer (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 4w, 1m)
Laughs in Spanish is set at Art Basel, the annual high-stakes art fair in Miami where Mariana runs a gallery. When her movie-star mother tries to help out, things get complicated. The play examines both the relationships between art and success and mothers and daughters. 

Lettice and Lovage by Peter Shaffer (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 3w, 2m)
Lettice Duffet is a flamboyant tour guide who loves to embellish the history behind an English country home, infuriating the house’s stoic, conventional steward. Lotte Schon, an inspector from the Preservation Trust, is not impressed and fires Lettice. Not being one to go without a fight, Lettice challenges the inspector to a battle to the death of all that is sacred to the Empire and the crown.

Mother Play by Paula Vogel (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 2w, 1m)
In 1962, just outside D.C., matriarch Phyllis is supervising her teenage children, Carl and Martha, as they move into a new apartment. This hilarious and heartbreaking semi-autobiographical portrait of a mother and her two children reveals—through five evictions—timeless truths of love, family and forgiveness. 

Shakespeare’s Sister by Emma Whipday (UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 5w, 7m, 1 girl, 1 boy)
Judith Shakespeare has one ambition: to be a playwright. When her debt-ridden father forces her into an engagement, she runs away with the help of dashing actor Ned Alleyn, hoping to join her brother in London. When she arrives, life takes a turn for the worst when her brother is gone, Ned engaged to another and her play refused. 

She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 6w, 3m)
A comedic romp into the world of fantasy role-playing games! In this high-octane dramatic comedy laden with homicidal fairies, nasty ogres and ’90s pop culture, Qui Nguyen offers a heart-pounding homage to the geek and warrior within us all. 

Stage Kiss by Sarah Ruhl (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 3w, 4m)
Art imitates Life. Life imitates Art. When two actors with a history are thrown together as romantic leads in a forgotten 1930s melodrama, they quickly lose touch with reality as the story onstage follows them offstage. 

The Complete Works of Jane Austen, Abridged by Jessica Bedford, Kathryn MacMillan, Charlotte Northeast and Meghan Winch (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 2w, 1m)
In a fast-paced romp, three actors take on all of Jane Austen’s beloved heroines, friends and love interests – and her incisive social satire – in just 80 minutes. But when they lose a cast member, the two remaining “Janeites” must teach an understudy about her work.

The Gap Year by Clare McMahon (UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 4w, 3m)
Newly widowed Kate, along with two friends, have decided to take a gap year. Realizing that life is too short, they chart out to visit every county in Ireland. It’s time for castles, coffee and craic as three women in their 60s go on the adventure of a lifetime. 

The Moors by Jen Silverman (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dark Comedy / 5w, 1m)
Two sisters and a dog live out their lives on the bleak English moors, dreaming of love and power. The arrival of a hapless governess and a moor-hen set all three on a strange and dangerous path. 

Torera by Monet Hurst-Mendoza (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 2w, 2m, 2 any gender)
Bullfighting in Yucatan, Mexico is a world nearly exclusive to men—yet for Elena Maria Ramirez, it is her life’s ambition. With the help of her best friend, a matador’s son, Elena begins secretly training to compete with the greatest. 

Vardy v Rooney: The Wagatha Christie Trial by Liv Hennessy (UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 4w, 3m)
Edited from seven sensational days of High Court transcripts, witness as the case of Rebekah Vardy v Coleen Rooney unfolds in their own words. A story stranger than fiction that blurs the boundaries of tabloid scoop, court case and soap opera, this trial explores privacy and celebrity in modern Britain while asking: who’s Davy Jones and where exactly is his locker?

Women and War by Jack Hilton Cunningham (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 4w, 1m)
Women and War is a collection of fictional stories based on historical fact, told by generations of Americans impacted by conflict from The Great War to the War in Afghanistan. These are tales of sacrifice, love, determination and hope told by those who bravely persevere on the home front and on the battlefield. Also available for licensing: Women and War: One-Act Edition (UK)

Women Laughing Alone with Salad by Sheila Callaghan (US)
(Full-Length Play, Dark Comedy / 3w, 1m)
Women Laughing Alone with Salad is inspired by the strangely ubiquitous advertising trend of picturing attractive women blissfully eating salad. This raw comedy is served with a side of feminism and tossed with audacious imagery, biting social critique and devastating humor. With this play, author Sheila Callaghan breaks all the rules of our image-obsessed culture. 

For more great plays and musicals featuring women, visit Concord Theatricals in the US or UK.