Female led theatre company Ladybird’s Kindling at Park Theatre this Autumn
Five perimenopausal women in their 40s, connected only by their mutual friend Mei, embark on a journey to fulfil her final wish and scatter her ashes in a redwood forest in Wales in a new female-led production. What starts as an opportunity to bond over their shared grief soon unravels into chaos as they lose signal, shelter and patience. Lost, drenched by a sudden storm, unnerved by strange noises and Celtic beasts, and fuelled only by soggy baguettes and warm wine, unspoken rivalries and secrets, old and new, soon come to the surface. Yet, as they begin to find common ground over forgotten HRT, 90’s club classics, challenging families, and the shared experience of being a mid-life woman, they start to realise that perhaps they aren’t as different as they thought. Kindling is a story of friendship, loss, resentment and ultimately hope.
Kindling is led by an all-female creative team with the aim of putting the expertise and experiences of women over the age of 35 on stage. The show on 6th November will be followed by post show talk Making Menopause Matter with menopause campaigner and educator Diane Danzebrink.
Sarah Rickman said, “Kindling was born out of frustration at how mid-life women were portrayed on stage, if at all… as a performer and writer the answer was simple; write the stories I wanted to see. During Covid I met regularly with a group of like-minded female creatives I’d previously worked with on another of my plays. Out of these sessions the idea for a play about a mid-life camping trip emerged. After an amazing response to the R&D at Camden Fringe I developed it into a full production. I couldn’t have done it without the support of so many brilliant women, our ever-expanding community of ladybirds. Our stories matter. We are still here and we are bloody funny!”
Ladybird Productions, led by Sarah Rickman and Ciara Pouncett, unites female directors, artists, producers and creatives to make theatre that will provoke and excite its audience, making work which is joyful, subversive and empowering. They aim to put women, particularly those over the age of 35, at the heart of their stories, focusing on female bonds, both in family and friendship, where lives are not defined in relation to the men around them. Sarah’s debut play, The Existence Formula, was performed at The Tristan Bates Theatre (now Seven Dials Playhouse) and The Bunker before moving to the New York City Fringe. Ciara’s producing credits include four world premiere productions, showcasing bold new voices in British theatre: Stiff Acrylic (Hope Theatre) by award-winning playwright Kenny Emson, 13 Grape Street (Pleasance Theatre), Inculpatus (Pentameters Theatre) and The Ignorance (Etcetera). Other theatre credits include Said Shed (The Other Palace) Flotsam (King’s Head) Global Voices (Arcola Theatre), and screen credits include Smothered (Sky Original comedy) EastEnders (BBC).
Park Theatre presents exceptional theatre in the heart of Finsbury Park, boasting two world-class performance spaces: Park200 for predominantly larger scale productions by established talent, and Park90, a flexible studio space, for emerging artists. In eleven years, it has enjoyed eight West End transfers (including Rose starring Maureen Lipman, The Boys in the Band starring Mark Gatiss, Pressure starring David Haig and The Life I Lead starring Miles Jupp), two National Theatre transfers, 14 national tours, seven Olivier Award nominations, has won multiple OffWestEnd Offie Awards, and Theatre of the Year award from The Stage as well as their inaugural Campaign of the Year award in 2025 for their work reaching underserved audiences with Korean comedy drama Kim’s Convenience.
