Strong is the New Pretty: Suzie Miller’s latest is vibrant and necessary

Type – Australian History, Docu-Drama, Female Equality
If you liked – The Bleeding Tree, How to Rule the World, W

Strong is the New Pretty: Playing the long game to get a professional, Australian female football league

Historically, female change-makers have made powerful waves with little backing, and the creation of the Australian Football League Women’s (AFLW) is no different. While Australian women first laced up their boots for fundraiser matches to support the unemployed during the 1930s Great Depression, and were later championed by trailblazers like the co-founders of the Victorian and West Australian Women’s Football League in the 80s, Suzie Miller’s latest play, Strong is the New Pretty, picks up the ball in the early 2000s.

Tracing the timeline from the appointment of the first female AFL Commissioner in 2005 and the 2010 formal review into women’s football, right through to the inaugural AFLW match in 2017, the production unfolds as a mosaic of short scenes directed straight to the audience. Instead of central characters anchoring a linear plot, the actors leap fluidly between vignettes that tell individual stories delivering the narration-heavy, documentary-style piece with facts and timelines projected on a screen above.

Building on the idea that women must think outside the box to navigate rigid structures built by men, the work utilizes creative and unexpected theatrical devices. The production opens on an empty stage, bare except for a shiny red Sherrin football spotlit in the centre. Clemence Williams’ sound design creates an immediately immersive atmosphere, weaving stadium crowd noises, laughter, and heavy, puffed-out breathing with the nostalgic voiceover of a young girl calling out, “kick it to me!”

Ahead of the premiere, I was lucky enough to chat with Director Sarah Giles who describes the vision behind this aesthetic: “There’s real whimsy in the staging – little sequences like super heightened, surreal theatricality, or moments of humour when we’re trying to find the unexpected way to stage that moment.” This whimsey manifests in actors delivering rapid duologues while frantically skipping jump rope, physical clowning, a cabaret chorus, and the clever use of portable lighting and handheld microphones to frame specific characters.

Kelley Abbey’s imaginative choreography and Paul Jackson’s lighting work in tandem to silhouette striking physical tableaux, including the iconic 2019 kick from Tayla Harris, memorialized by an actor frozen mid-air in a vertical split. Another visual triumph is the use of a football mounted on a long pole; choreographed alongside the slow-motion movements of the actors, the execution is so refined it genuinely mirrors a ball soaring through the air.

Giles clarifies that the work doesn’t aim to recreate football on stage, but rather to recreate the spirit, ingenuity, audacity, and tenacity of the women who fought for it. “It’s actually about how you start something from nothing and how you fight for equality and for space – so it becomes relevant to almost every aspect of society,” she notes. Keeping the entire all-female cast on stage together for nearly the full 80-minute production visually enforces this sentiment, proving that progress itself is a team sport.

The ensemble cast of eight are on stage for the majority of the show, with the fast-paced staging heightened by constantly engaging movement. While the parallel plotlines run side-by-side, the lack of a clear protagonist and the rarity of direct character-to-character dialogue occasionally fractures the ensemble’s cohesiveness. Nonetheless, individual performances shine brightly in their pseudo-fictionalised of the real women involved in the AFLW history. Lucy Bell brings a sharp, firm precision to the first female AFL commissioner, beautifully grounding the bureaucratic boardroom battles. Amber McMahon delivers gritty physical comedy and infectious swagger as a fiercely determined police officer turned AFLW coach. Meanwhile, Tara Morice projects a quiet resilience that beautifully captures the decades of relentless, unseen hard work that laid the league’s foundations.

Each cast member infuses their characterisations with strident, comedic caricature, successfully highlighting societal hurdles like body shaming, the weaponization of the female form in the public eye, and the massive disparity in expectations between male and female players. While male AFL players earn (more than) enough to make sport their sole career, these AFLW players have to balance the sporting demands with everyday professions and often on top of motherhood. The characters are made up of a police officer, journalist, midwife, and hairdresser who fight the systemic battles to make a professional league viable.

Is STRONG IS THE NEW PRETTY worth seeing in Sydney?

At a time when recent AFL news stories have been particularly demoralising and exhausting, connecting with the spirit of the game through the AFLW lens offers a refreshing, empowering antidote. While didactic in its style and prone to glossing over the messier, intersecting structural issues of an ongoing, gruelling fight for true equity, Strong is the New Pretty stands as a vibrant, necessary celebration of the unique women who built the AFLW from the ground up.

Tickets and Practical Info for Strong is the New Pretty in Sydney 🎟️

Playing at Sydney Opera House until 12 December, 2026