Wild Women is a collection of bold, darkly comic tales exploring female transformation as rebellion, survival and power.
Drawing on folklore, contemporary myth and lived experience, these stories centre on women who are pushed to the margins and respond not by shrinking, but by changing shape, by being monstrous.
Blending storytelling with projection and visual imagery, the show creates a heightened, immersive atmosphere that shifts between the intimate and the mythic. Each piece reclaims the body as a site of knowledge, pleasure and resistance.
What the Audience say...
Utterly Brilliant, Bewitching and Bonkers
A fantastical celebration of women on the edge reclaiming their voices
Reviews Hub
“electrifying”
“invites us all to howl at the moon”
4.5 Stars
"Outstanding writing, beautifully brought to being by a skilled cast"
Emma Kelly, a Brighton-based award-winning dramatist, producer and educator, and the founder of Wild Elk Productions. Her work is dark and comic, often with a focus on sci-fi and immersive theatre, exploring transformation, power and belief through bold storytelling.
She is the writer of 2145 (Brighton Fringe; award-nominated; top 3% BBC Writersroom Open Call) and The Tower (shortlisted for the Farnham Maltings Award). Her short film addressing agism in the entertainment industry, Fast Firming Wand, has won several awards, including Best Sci-Fi (Milan Indie Film Festival) and Best Plot Twist (Absurd Festival).
Deirdre Daly is a Sussex theatre director whose work includes, The Pinot Princess (Omnibus Theatre), Boot (Lion & Unicorn), Stuck Like Me (Edinburgh Fringe), One Minute_ by Simon Stephens (Tristan Bates Theatre), the VR film Fractus, and site-specific productions across Sussex including The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. As associate director on UK tours of Antigone and Lysistrata, and as assistant director on Take On Me (Dante or Die), Dr Blighty (Nutkhut), Home Fires (Inroad Productions), and Brighton Festival productions. Deirdre is also the founder and artistic director of Kaleidoscope Theatre Company.
On a wet January evening in a Brighton supermarket car park, a recently widowed woman waits. Drawn by grief, belonging and belief, she stands on the edge of something vast... part cult, part community, part promise of escape
In a fluorescent self-help circle, Sheena pieces together the signs of an unexpected metamorphosis. As body, appetite and instinct shift beyond control, Sheena confronts a feral beastly power rising within her.
Through tarot, memory and myth, Aylin revisits a childhood shaped by grief, belief and unspoken threat. As spiritual authority collides with bodily autonomy, she rejects imposed salvation in favour of pleasure, survival and self-authored power.
Pushed to the margins by age, rejection and a beauty industry built on fear, Frankie, an actress, makes a final, desperate investment. What follows is a metamorphosis, grotesque, comic and irreversible. In becoming unique, she becomes newly coveted.
A woman’s naked dawn swims spark fear, desire, and violence in her coastal community. Branded, possessed, and silenced, she disappears into darkness and transforms into something wild.
Laura, an actor from Brighton whose previous roles include Mary in Pickwick and
Weller (NVT), Polly Stokes in The Sweet Science of Bruising (NVT), various
characters in Oh! What a Lovely War (BOAT), First Voice in Under Milk Wood
(BOAT), Kitty Givens in The Welkin (Wagner Hall) and various characters in
productions at The Regency Town House.
Lorraine Yu, a Hongkongese actor and life model with a movement practice in capoeira. Recent stage credits include HATER (Brighton Fringe, Lambeth Fringe, Viola!), BATSU! (Edinburgh Fringe), The Good Device (Camden People Theatre), The Tower (Brighton Fringe) and That Witch Helen (Brighton Fringe). When she’s not performing or playing capoeira, you may find her daydreaming by the sea.
Tia Dunn, whose stage Credits include: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Puppy, The Pursuit of Joy, Funeral Games, Ruffian on the Stair, Anna & Marina, Pyrenees, In Memoriam, Maryland, Julius Caesar.
Screen credits include: Dune S2, The Contraception Fair, Casualty, Eastenders, Coronation Street, Jingle Bell Heist, Smudge, Luna, A Soft and Gentle Humming, The Offer.
Deborah Kearne, a charismatic actor with oodles of energy and personality! She loves playing comedy characters as well as dark villains on screen and stage. Deborah appeared alongside Anya Taylor-Joy & Alex Hassell in The Miniaturist for The BBC and was the English language voiceover artist for the lead in Netflix’s Pernille.
Demet Dayanch, a multidisciplinary actor, writer, screenwriter and published author with over fifteen years’ experience creating original work across film, television, theatre and literature. Known for emotionally intelligent, bold and socially engaged storytelling that centres marginalised voices, psychological depth and transformation. Most recently...
• Paul Weller Takes Tea at Two, Performer (One-Woman Show), Riverside Studios, Hammersmith (2025), positively reviewed by Everything Theatre
• SHAM Lead Role (Liz), Lambeth Fringe Festival (2025) Regular Adhoc Actor, Bread & Roses Theatre (2022–Present)
Artist A/B Smith, aka Boblete: a music producer, hacker, coder, educator, data scientist, VJ, DJ and immersive experience artist operating in a space that weaves spatial sound, technology, politics and electronic club culture into art. With a background in computer science and education, his current work investigates the politics of AI and the possibilities of sound as a catalyst for revelation.
A/B Smith has been a regular collaborator with Emma on numerous projects involving sound and projection such as 2145 an XR Retelling (Arts Council Funded) and The Tower.
To
The Lantern Theatre Team
Our fabulous technician, Erin Burbridge,
Roxy Van Der Post & Sam Brooks for documenting the process
You, the audience, for supporting grassroots art
Everyone who gave their time to raise money for Brighton Women's Centre
We are trying to get funding and want to develop Wild Women, your feedback would be hugely appreciated to help us on this journey. Grab a pebble with a code to scan on your way out...
