REVIEW: Well Behaved Women, Veritas Productions, EdFringe 2025 ★★

“Well behaved women seldom make history…”

..but these misbehaving women are making their mark in the Gilded Balloon Patter House. Marianne needs a scandal to feature her writing in The Sunday Telegraph, and her friend Hattie’s seance feels like the perfect chance to get one. 

Enter Chester, Hattie’s awful cousin, and resident of High Society, also rumoured to have murdered his wife. In a ruse to get Chester to spill, Marianne stages a fake seance, which very quickly turns real. As lights flicker and objects move against nature, everyone moves closer to their wit’s end. 

Amy Yeo’s characters are certainly not making history, but they certainly are making a mess of things. From the outset, the dialogue is delivered at breakneck speed, and with the script being so dense, my understanding is already on the backfoot. 

It is clear in the visuals that this is a period piece, yet it reads as a panicked arrangement of satin drapery, and sparse Victorian-esque objects that do little to transform the space. As costumes go, they do not quite hit the mark, whilst furthering the ambiguity surrounding the status of each character, also not communicated in get-ups. 

The farcical nature of the play is at times entertaining, and the technical effects are successful in creating an atmosphere of spooky spiritual chaos. The concept of the seance, however, contradicts the play’s concept of spotlighting the ordinary lives of Victorian women, which in this show feels entirely extraordinary.

The cast’s acting is solid, with stand-out performances coming from Evelyn Faber’s Hattie, frequently punchy and comedic, and (unfortunately) Ethan Kelly’s Sir Hunt, who is convincing in his violent misogyny and casual racism. 

Alongside sub-plots such as Hattie’s will-they-won’t-they relationship with girlfriend Cassie, and Emma’s obsession over having a husband, the story appears to not know itself at all. If your intention is to make a play about women, having men at the centre of the narrative feels like a giant misstep. 

Although the notion behind challenging ‘Well behaved women seldom make history’ has its merits, I would love to have seen some more misbehaviour from the women in this piece. Because who doesn’t love women doing bad things?

Recommended Drink: Chester’s cocktail ‘The Hunt’, named after himself…

You can catch Well Behaved Women at Doonstairs at Gilded Balloon Patter House from Aug 4-12, 14-25 at 14:20. Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.