In her first collection of plays, writer and BAFTA-nominated actor Maxine Peake introduces four unique stories of resistance and passion based on real women.
From the famous Leeds-born cyclist Beryl Burton battling through various obstacles to achieve success; to Lillian Bilocca, the 'headscarf revolutionary'; to four bold women protesting for Women Against Pit Closures, occupying a coal pit over Easter weekend in 1993; to former MP Baroness Betty Boothroyd, the first woman to serve as Speaker of the House of Commons. Follow these women as Peake guides you through their stories with warmth and Northern candor.
Beryl (2014): '
...it is impossible to puncture the play's warmth... Beryl
ensures audiences are holding on tight to the handlebars before rushing off with zeal into the life of a woman who deserves to be better known.' - Broadway World UK
The Last Testament of Lillian Bilocca (2017): 'Last Testament
is exhilarating and moving, a show made for and with the people of Hull... It speaks truth to power and celebrates not just Bilocca but all the women who refuse to be shut up - then and now.' - The Stage
Queens of the Coal Age (2018): '...
a welcome corrective... a fierce cry for recognition, foregrounding the grit and resolve of the miners' wives who kept the strike of 1984-85 alive and went down fighting in the industry's dying days.' - Guardian
'Betty!' A Sort of Musical (2023): '
...a timely and refreshing reminder that sometimes our politicians can have noble intentions... a charmingly daft comic biography of Baroness Betty Boothroyd, who resolutely held power to account across her groundbreaking, decades-long career.' - The Stage
Maxine Peake, three-time BAFTA-nominated actor, writer, director and producer, has enjoyed a prolific career as a performer for screen and theatre, and as a writer for stage and radio. On television she has starred in
Shameless,
The Village,
Anne, and
Say Nothing; while her film roles have included
The Theory of Everything,
Peterloo,
Funny Cow, and
Words of War. In addition to being an acclaimed playwright, Maxine has led a diverse range of stage plays such as
The Welkin,
Hamlet and
A Streetcar Named Desire.
One of the UK's best loved actors, Maxine Peake is also an accomplished writer - her credits include Beryl (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Queens of the Coal Age (Royal Exchange), 'Betty!' A Sort of Musical (Royal Exchange) and The Last Testament of Lillian Bilocca (Hulltruck Theatre). Her film credits include Mike Leigh's epic period drama Peterloo, Oscar-nominated The Theory of Everything, a BIFA-nominated turn in independent British feature Funny Cow (on which Maxine served as Executive Producer through her own production company, Vexed Pixie) and Thomas Clay's period thriller Fanny Lye Deliver'd. Maxine is best known for leading high profile TV dramas such as Black Mirror: Metalhead (Netflix), Three Girls (BBC), Silk (BBC), The Village (BBC), Shameless (Channel 4) and The Bisexual (Hulu/Channel 4). In 2014, Maxine played the title role in Hamlet at the Manchester Royal Exchange in a critically acclaimed 'radical reimagining' of William Shakespeare's play, returning to play Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire in 2016 and Winnie in Samuel Beckett's Happy Days in 2018, in equally lauded productions. In 2019 Maxine was seen at the Barbican in one woman show Avalanche, and returned to the National Theatre to lead Lucy Kirkwood's The Welkin in 2020.
