REVIEW: GOOD FOR HER! @ THE OTHER PALACE

🎭 Good For Her!

📍 The Other Palace Studio, 12 Palace Street, London, SW1E 5JA

🗓 Wednesday 22nd July 2026

⭐️ 2 Stars

A STAGNANT SEARCH FOR A SINGULAR PURPOSE

Arriving at The Other Palace is always a treat, and the atmosphere in the bar before the show last night was wonderfully jovial. It was lovely catching up with a few fellow reviewers, soaking in the buzz before heading downstairs into the beautifully intimate Studio space.

GOOD FOR HER! is a one-woman dark comedy that follows Iris, an aspiring creative navigating the chaotic pressures of modern life, career ambitions, and female relationships. Told through a mix of direct address and multimedia, the play - written and performed by Mollie Semple - attempts to dissect the modern female experience and the external voices that shape it.

If I’m honest, this was a long and somewhat boring 75 minutes. One of the main problems was just how unlikeable the character of Iris actually was. She was self-centred and hugely narcissistic, which made me not care about her or root for her at all. In a one-person play, to have your sole character this unlikeable is a huge risk, and frankly - one that didn't pay off.

The writing itself felt rather stagnant. I couldn't help but frequently wonder what the point of this play actually was. Regular readers of mine will know just how highly I prize a strong central narrative in theatre, but the writing here failed to have a singular purpose. If I’m being completely truthful, it made my ADHD brain check out quite early on.

It has some good ideas, and the creatives obviously wanted to make a female-focused piece of theatre, with all the characters who seem to influence Iris being female. But the execution of those ideas needs taking back to the foundations and rebuilding. As someone who craves and celebrates strong female-driven stories, there seems to be a lot of missed opportunities in theatre of all scales recently to deliver these in any meaningful way.

I also found it hard to find any believability in the performance, unfortunately. The only bit that felt entirely real was her interaction when she bumps into an old friend in the street. That brief moment had a flash of genuine human connection, and showed the true potential that exists here.

Directorial choices also hampered the evening. It seems that director Kayla Stokes did not understand the performance space at all. The Studio space is small and intimate, with flat seating. I was sitting in the fourth row, and having the protagonist sitting on the floor for large portions of the play was completely the wrong decision for this venue. I simply couldn’t see her at all, and at 6 foot tall, this is not something I often experience! When I was already struggling to be engaged in the storyline, staring at the back wall of the stage for extended periods of time only succeeded in disengaging me even more.

The multimedia aspects had varying degrees of success. The best element was definitely the video of Iris in a frustrating Zoom audition, which nailed the awkwardness perfectly. The Google searches had a certain novelty to them, but I sometimes struggled to see their relevance to the onstage action. Meanwhile, the pre-recorded voices of the other characters were slightly too loud for the space, overpowering the intimacy of the room.

By the time we reached the ending, the treatment of the mother character felt jarring and missed the mark. While the play is marketed as a dark comedy, it genuinely seems to struggle to find its identity, caught between tragic melodrama and satirical humour without quite landing either.

I applaud the vision of this piece, but the execution definitely needs work.

If you want to make up your own mind about this play, GOOD FOR HER! continues performances at The Other Palace until Sunday 26th July. CLICK HERE for more information and to book tickets.

Neill Kovacic-Clarke

All views are my own and I pride myself on being honest, fair and free from influence. Theatre is subjective and it is important to remember that all views expressed are just those of one reviewer.  

My ticket for this performance of Good For Her! was gifted by Chloe Nelkin Consulting who invited me to watch the show in exchange for my honest review. The fact that my ticket was gifted played no part in the content of my review or the star rating given. 

WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY:

Mollie Semple

RUNNING TIME (approx):

1 hour 15 minutes, with no interval

CONTENT WARNINGS:

Violence; Body image; Allusion to sexual violence

AGE RECOMMENDATION:

13+

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