Cast

Synopsis

Scarfield Ladies’ Rugby Union Football Club is struggling each week to attract enough players to make a team. When a new sponsorship deal falls through it looks like the team may fold. In a bid to save the club they enter a ladies’ Rugby Sevens competition in the hope that winning the prize money will help keep the club afloat.

With many of the team preferring a party to training, it falls to the team captain and coach Maggie to galvanise the girls into playing the game of their lives to save the club they love. From training sessions and dirty locker rooms, to nights on the town and disastrous camping trips, we see love, life and friendship unfold in this gritty but humorous play.

Directors Notes

I am really looking forward to working with 6 females here at BLT in Muddy Cows with another John Godber script.

Written as a supposed follow-up to the male Up ‘N’ Under, a play I have had the honour of appearing in here at BLT in the 1990s and then directing at Keighley Playhouse in 1997, the ladies version is actually based on a Rugby Union team whereas the men’s Up ‘n’ Under is Rugby League.

The ladies’ Muddy Cows follows 7 females as they reflect on their troubled lives and relationships as they try to win a “sevens” competition to get some money to save their club. In the professional run it left all the physical rugby playing to the imagination through the reflections of the ladies in the dressing room, but I have tried to build on that, with a bit of artistic licence and innovation, which I hope as an audience you enjoy.

All the ladies had never touched a rugby ball in their lives before rehearsals for this play, but they have thrown themselves into it with gusto and enthusiasm and we have had a fabulous time putting everything together for you. Ladies’ sports in general, but especially football and rugby, are enjoying a real purple-patch at the moment and are run very professionally, enjoying lots of investment. This has recently helped win a number of trophies in the international arena, with the women bringing home World Cup success in cricket, football and rugby. This particular story here tonight is a million miles away from the international arena but reflects a lot on the trials and tribulations of local teams in amateur rugby, not just female clubs but male ones too. John Godber once again uses his observation to write a wonderful play that will make you laugh and make you think in equal measure and hopefully give you the motivation to get involved in sport, because lets face it we all need an outlet of some description. I hope you enjoy tonight’s play.