Good for Her by Mollie Semple, The Other Palace Studio, 12 Palace Street, London SW1 | until 26 July 2026 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review by William Russell

Photo credit: Malachy Luckie

Good for Her

by Mollie Semple

The Other Palace Studio, 12 Palace Street, London SW1 | until 26 July 2026

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review by William Russell

“Impressively performed.”

Iris is a one-time child star whose career in America has long since ended and she is now 28 years old trying to get an acting career again, looking after her mother now suffering from dementia and following an old schoolfriend, a rival for parts in school plays, on Instagram now an actress with a developing career of which she is very jealous. It is an odd mix of topics for a monologue which starts off as very funny indeed and then moves inexorably into the grim reality of life with an ageing incontinent demented mother which becomes just too much for her to bear and the endless rejections by agents and people who once used her as a child. Semple launched it some time ago at Theatre 503 and now she has brought it in to town for this short run. Kayla Stokes's direction is impeccable and the voices off and the extracts from her emails flashed up on the back wall of the stage have been very skilfully fitted in to the play – there is such a flow of words that one has to admire how all this has been controlled. Good for Her is possibly a little too long – attention did wander some thirty minutes in as one started to wonder where it was going and to tire of the reported stories – but Semple's performance is impressive and she manages the switch from comedy to the sinister and sad perfectly There is a bizarre heart shaped red cushion from which two arms extend that is used initially to comic effect and then to bring things to an end that, while horrifying, is still an escape for Iris and a chance to live a life that is now all her own.

Cast

Mollie Semple – Iris

Voices – Jacquetta May – Mum; Zoe Maltby – Casting Director.

Al Nash – Customer; Jordan Stratton – Director; Sam Morris – Doctor

Creatives

Director – Kayla Stokes

Sound Consultant – Lonnie Ro Wade