IN the absence of men’s football to entertain a war-weary nation, women’s teams sprang up across the country in the Great War with the Dick, Kerr’s Ladies becoming the most famous.

Formed in 1917, they attracted crowds of more than 50,000 and grew so popular that the Football Association tried to ban them. One hundred years later, it is time their story was told.

York company Off The Rock Productions will do so when presenting Benjamin Peel’s Not A Game For Girls at the Friargate Theatre, Lower Friargate, York, next month in a multimedia production that fuses theatre, song, dance and specially-recorded film sequences.

The production will be produced by Matthew Wignall, directed by Alison Young, assisted by Mike Hickman, with sound design by Alexander King; set design by Paul Mason; music direction by Samantha Hindman; stage management by Ann Crossley and Matt Pattison and film footage by We Made This Productions, a new film company led by Simon Copper, of United Response, comprised of people with learning disabilities.

The sum of £1 from every ticket sold will go to United Response, a charity that helps those with learning disabilities and mental health needs to live in the community.

York Press:

The Dick, Kerr Ladies team in 1921, with Lily Parr holding the ball

Writer Benjamin Peel says: “I stumbled across the story of the Dick, Kerr’s Ladies through the BBC’s One Show of all places, when a couple of players from a later team were interviewed and spoke about the beginnings of the side in the First World War. I was instantly hooked as I had no idea that women’s football went that far back and indeed started in the late 19th century.”

Although the play is based on real-life characters and events, Peel has, in the name of dramatic licence, not stuck to an exact historical timeline. “I’ve moved some episodes around and into my timeframe,” he says. “As it’s impossible to relate the background of all 11 players from that very first side, I’ve created some fictional and some composite characters. It is of course anyway my own invented theatrical rendering of the Dick, Kerr’s Ladies story up until a certain point in time that I felt to be a natural stopping point for the play.

“However, I hope that I’ve captured some of the spirit and camaraderie that led those women to ignore and defy the prevailing social attitudes from both genders and prove most emphatically that they were wrong to dismiss football as Not A Game For Girls.”

Off The Rock’s cast will feature Hannah Jade Robbins as Alice Woods; Kirsty Edwards, as Florrie Redford; Sonia Di Lorenzo, Betty Williams; Georgia Smith, Jessie Walmsley; Matthew Wignall, Jack Holmes; Keir Brown, Alfred Frankland; Laura Castle, Lily Parr; Samantha Hindman, Mrs Parr; Victoria Delaney, Mrs Woods; Richard Thirlwall, Len Williams; Natalie-Clare Brimicombe, Madelaine Ourry, and Guy Matthews, Herbert Stanley.

Not A Game For Girls will run from June 15 to 18, 7.30pm nightly plus a 2.30pm Sunday matinee. Tickets cost £10, concessions £8, on 01904 613000 or at ridinglights.org