12 – 14 February
The Visiting Season of brilliant touring productions continues at Bath’s Ustinov Studio.
Life Before You is a fierce and unflinching new play which lays bare the fault lines between mothers and daughters, touring to the Ustinov Studio from Thursday 12 to Saturday 14 February. The production addresses women’s healthcare, class, survival, and the erasure of aging women, asking: what do we pass on, and how do we escape the lives written for us?
Gráinne leaves Ardoyne, Belfast, for England, chasing the promise of a better life for her daughter. She scrubs, she bleaches, she sacrifices— and piece by piece, she begins to disappear. Eimear grows up surrounded by privilege, stepping through doors her mother could never open. But with every step forward, she drifts further away — into another class, another name, another life.
Life Before You was developed in Bristol by writer Eva Hudson and director Roisin McCay-Hines, inspired by their shared experiences of navigating medical misogyny and understandings of class and female identity. They also share the specific context of being daughters of Northern Irish mothers who moved to England and raised their children here.
Cast: Grainne – Hayley-Marie Axe, Hayley’s Theatre credits include; Mrs Higgins in Pygmalion, Andy in Stepping Out (Frinton Summer Theatre), Linda in Leave a Message (The Vaults), Mary in Baby Blues (Cheltenham Everyman Theatre), Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (Customs House Theatre), Hippolyta in The Two Noble Kinsmen (Theatre Royal Bath, Ustinov Studio), Eleanor Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility (UK tour), Lesley in Talking Heads, Marie D’Amour in Paris Snow the musical and Shelley in the comedy Ladies Day – for which she was awarded Broadway Baby’s best supporting actress award.
Eimear (multirole) – Georgia Alexandra Georgia trained at Arts University Bournemouth, graduating in 2022. Her credits include Call the Midwife (BBC) for TV, and A London Lark Rising (Butterfly Theatre Company), a site specific production.
Writer: Eva Hudson, (b.2001) is an English-Irish writer and director, who studied English Language and Literature at University College London, before training as a playwright at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
Her recent work as playwright includes 855-FOR-TRUTH, which played at The Bridge Theatre, Brussels in May/June 2025, after an initial run at The Hope Theatre, London in January 2025. Her writing has previously been staged at Bristol Old Vic, The Pleasance, London and at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and she has additionally directed projects at The Hope Theatre, Arcola Theatre and at The Edinburgh Fringe.
Director/Producer: Roisin McCay-Hines, Roisin is a Cornish-Irish director and producer who studied at University of Exeter before training as a director at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. She is a recipient of the Michael Grandage Company Futures Award, Shakespeare at Tobacco Factory Bursary Award and was shortlisted for BBC New Creatives.
Directing credits include Kevrin: Out of Season (South West Tour, featured in The Guardian’s top shows), Cold, Dark Matters (Theatre503, The Hope Theatre and Edinburgh Fringe), Mo Chara, Dia Duit (Theatre Royal Plymouth), The Fall of the House of Usher (Red Rope Theatre), A Summer of Birds (Exeter Northcott Theatre), The Hounds of the Baskervilles (Red Rope Theatre), Bar Tape (SW tour), No One Will Tell Me How to Start a Revolution (Wardrobe Theatre) and Pascoe’s Pilchard Palace (Kneehigh).
Assistant Director credits include The Ugly Duckling (Kneehigh/Wise Children), Grief Play (Kneehigh, workshop), Further than the Furthest Thing (Minack Theatre) and Marthusow ha Mysteris (Hall for Cornwall / O-region).
Running time: 1 hr 15 mins
The production is proudly supporting The Menopause Charity.
Chief Executive of The Menopause Charity, Jenny Haskey said: “Life Before You highlights a vital and often under-discussed experience affecting many women. We’re delighted to support REMH Productions in bringing this important story to a wider audience and look forward to raising awareness and increasing access to trusted information to those going through the menopause.”
Tickets for all performances at the Ustinov Studio are on sale now and available on the website at theatreroyal.org.uk or at Theatre Royal Bath Box Office on 01225 448844
Photography credit: Craig Fuller
