Hit play about wartime women footballers returns

A hit north-east play about first world war women footballers and munitionettes who saved the war effort is to return in March 2027 by popular demand – and iconic Geordie football star Alan Shearer will make a to-camera cameo in the play.

Wor Bella, an exhilarating one-woman play about the role of women in society and the selfless wartime women footballers, has garnered standing ovations after every performance. The show, which premiered in 2022 and subsequently sold out nine venues in the north east and London before transferring to Newcastle Theatre Royal in 2025, is touring the region in March to celebrate Women’s History Month.

Jane Harker, from the play’s producers Wisecrack Productions, said: “We are delighted to be bringing Wor Bella back. The demand is incredible. This will be the third time in only five years it has been produced. It is a terrific story about these forgotten, heroic women. It may be set in 1918 during the first world war but Wor Bella is a timeless story about women’s struggles, which more than 100 years later is still totally relevant.”

During the first world war, hundreds of football teams were formed nationally and dozens in the north east. Wor Bella tells their incredible story. “We want each new generation to know about these fantastic, heroic working-class women. I can’t think of a more appropriate story to tell during Women’s History Month,” said Harker.

The play is told from the viewpoint of “Wor” Bella Reay, the Blyth Spartans centre-forward who scored an incredible 133 goals in 30 matches for Blyth Spartans Ladies in an 18-month period. The team achieved cup glory in 1918 and Bella went on to represent England.

Harker added: “Bella Reay has been described as ‘the Alan Shearer of her day’, a fitting accolade as the former Newcastle and England star makes a to-camera cameo in the play. He’s very supportive.”

Wor Bella was written by north-east playwright Ed Waugh, whose other hits also include The Cramlington Train Wreckers, Carrying David and Hadaway Harry. Speaking in 2024 to Living North magazine, Waugh said: “Most of my stories are about forgotten, Geordie, working-class heroes. These people have been forgotten, and what we try to do is bring these fantastic stories to life.”

Interestingly, the status of women’s football has always intersected with broader debates about the status of women in society and exploring this in Wor Bella was clearly a priority for Waugh. “When the men were conscripted in 1916, women went into the workplace and the factories. Prior to that most women in this region went into domestic service,” he said.

“These working class women personified a spirit that they could go out to work and they should have had equal rights. However, the progress that this period seemed to promise did not emerge. They were kicked out of the workplace once the armistice was signed and these women, who had saved the war effort, weren’t allowed to vote. They didn’t get the vote until 1928,” said Waugh.

The production will play nine times across the north east and Cumbria in March 2027, calling at Hexham, Blyth (twice), Gateshead, Carlisle, Barnard Castle, Bishop Auckland, Gosforth and South Shields.

For further details and to book tickets visit www.worbella.co.uk.