YSCP (York Settlement Community Players)

Eager, optimistic and ready for adventure, Tess, Celia, Carolyn and Maeve are embarking on their studies at Girton College, Cambridge, in 1896. They are as bright and as hard-working as their male counterparts but they will not graduate and be awarded degrees. The young women will leave with no qualification and bearing the stigma of being a 'bluestocking', a label that may jeopardise their future reputations.

An appeal has been made to the board of trustees for this to be reviewed and put to a vote. Whilst this is awaited, the youngsters face the joys and challenges of student life that are not all that different from those experienced by students today.

Premiered at Shakespeare's Globe, London, in 2013, Jessica Swale’s vibrant play follows the young women at Girton through a tumultuous year. As they face distractions of love, the cruelty of the class divide and the strength of opposition to their cause, they fight to change the future of education for themselves and for those who will follow them.