I’d better confess upfront that I am quite invested in 6 Women. A couple of years ago, I was fortunate enough to be approached to help with a new project about women from 6 different decades of life. I enjoyed writing my responses to a few 'prompt questions', which led to a more detailed one-to-one interview and a rather self-indulgent trip down memory lane, for me at least.

In July 2017 I went to see a staged reading of the play in its draft form, at the Offbeat festival in Oxford. At this point the play was about six women from different walks of life taking part in a scientific sleep study over one weekend. Over a year later and I find myself back at the Old Fire Station watching something both very different from, but eerily similar to, that initial staged reading.

Along with the show’s Director/Producer Lizzy McBain, Gaye Poole is the writer who pulled together stories from real women, and, with a dash of creative licence, wove them into the 90-minute performance we witnessed this evening. Amongst other shows, Poole has previously written the brilliant DRY, a Human Story Theatre production about middle-class, middle-aged drinking, which I was lucky enough to catch back in January this year. This time Poole has worked with UnderConstruction Theatre to bring us 6 Women. In a similar way to the Human Story Theatre shows I have seen, the staging was minimal: 6 white, wooden chairs placed at varying angles across the small stage, with white frames of differing sizes hanging in the background (cleverly used to show us photos from various points of each woman’s story).

I love this minimalism when it comes to set design, because it draws focus on the performers, all of whom did a sterling job in telling their story. The low-key set is reflected in the lean use of movement and music to highlight flashbacks and memories; as Jo (Amanda Edmead) is going into a time when her family were downstairs watching TV while she is upstairs doing some ‘research’, the five other cast members come together to provide the audience with an image of that memory. This device was used sparingly throughout and added to the drama brought to the characters' monologues as they discussed their lives with the absent BBC interviewer (and the audience).

It’s difficult to go into the content of the play without writing a complete essay about the challenges, and similarities and differences, that women have experienced in their personal lives throughout different ages and decades. I was transfixed throughout, believing that every cast member’s tale was not scripted, but their own, due to such powerful performances. The youngest interviewee, Ella, was performed with touching, honest sincerity by Caitlin-Carrick Varty. Summer Luk’s Thea was equally compelling. Indeed, all 6 performers, Jane (Maggie Saunders), May (Anita Wright) and the indomitable, hilarious Sobena (Tamsin Heatley) as well as Varty, Edmead and Luk gave wonderful representations of the real-life stories Poole has so painstakingly woven together to create these characters.

There was no ‘star’ of the show: each performance was equally compelling and delivered truthfully, laced with laughter, loss, strength and genuine passion.