Last night I went to see Bad Girls - The Musical. Stop sniggering. It was the gala evening to raise funds for Stonewall, the equality campaigning charity for lesbians, gay men and bisexuals.
Despite being an avid fan of the tv programme (I said stop sniggering) I thought the show would be dreadful because I’m not a musicals fan. It wasn’t. Bad Girls – The Musical was very camp, very funny and full of singing screws like Sylvia ‘Bodybag’ Hollamby and Jim Fenner and congo-ing cons like Shell Dockley and Yvonne Atkins.
Amidst all the feathers and sequins, power ballads and cheeky innuendo Bad Girls – The Musical made a serious point about the treatment of women in prison. Without giving the plot away, the play covers what happens when some vulnerable women are incarcerated for crimes, which in the grand scheme of things, are not very serious. One of the supporting cast members played a child-like prisoner who had her hair in bunches, wore pink, girly clothes and whenever anything dramatic happened on stage would bang her head. She was clearly depicting a prisoner with mental health problems.
I’m not suggesting women should go unpunished for breaking the law simply because they are female. And nor should male offenders. However, their mental health needs must be addressed. As light as Bad Girls – The Musical was it hammered home the point about how vulnerable women in prison really are. And this made for uncomfortable watching.