Woman Business

Woman Business

written and performed by Shilpa Varma

directed by Frances Bodiam

presented by Footfalls Theatre Company

Woman Business is a bold and intimate one-woman play about identity, belonging, and what it means to be a brown woman. A story of what we inherit, what we outgrow, and what we finally claim as our own.

The play follows Diya – a woman shaped by inherited rituals and the expectations placed upon her as she moves between cultures, roles and generations of memory.

Diya has spent her life carrying the traditions and expectations passed down through the women before her. Through childhood prayers, marriage, migration, grief and myth, she begins to unravel the many versions of herself – daughter, wife, widow, believer, rebel… goddess.

As the stories of her foremothers echo through her own life, Diya confronts the roles she has been taught to play. With humour, tenderness and raw honesty, it asks a simple but urgent question: what happens when a woman finally begins to speak in her own voice?

About the Artists

Shilpa Varma is a writer and actor whose storytelling spans theatre, animation, adaptation and audio fiction. Her short plays have been staged in India, Ireland and across London. Her work explores interfaith relationships, migration and the lived experience of brown womanhood. Alongside theatre, she has adapted major titles for Disney India, Netflix and Apple TV, and has written for Cartoon Network, Audible India and Spotify. Her writing blends humour, ritual, cultural specificity and emotional honesty.

Frances Bodiam is a director and actor with Putney Theatre Company and Footfalls Theatre Company in London. Her directing credits include: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Simon Stephens), How to Date a Feminist (Samantha Ellis), The Lovely Bones (Bryony Lavery/Alice Sebold) and Things I Know to be True (Andrew Bovell).