The Cambridge First All-Ladies Fire Brigade

“Fire Brigade: Stand By To Raise!”

• Watch our 15 minute showcase, filmed at Birmingham Hippodrome and featuring Elexi Walker, Courtney Stapleton, Elena Pitsiaeli, Maddison Bulleyment and Rosie Coles with MD Alex Beetschen:

The Cambridge First All-Ladies Fire Brigade is an upbeat ensemble musical, following the world of British physicist and inventor Hertha Marks Ayrton and four of her contemporaries at 1870s Girton College, Cambridge: mathematician Charlotte Scott, astronomer Annie Russell Maunder, chemist Ida Freund and botanist Ethel Sargant.

See songs from the show performed live!

• Saturday 6th June, 2026: Family science singalong workshop and concert performance in Cheltenham.
• Friday 19th June, 2026: Concert performance in Oxfordshire.
• Saturday 20th June, 2026: Family science singalong workshop in Oxfordshire.
• Sunday 26th July 2026: Family science singalong and concert performance in Lincoln.
• Sunday 10th May, 2026: Lincoln Arts Centre, hosts two sharings of a workshop version of the show created with University of Lincoln musical theatre students.
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Driven by her guilt at leaving the seven siblings she cared for like a mother, Hertha starts her studies as a well-behaved, gifted student. Struggling to live up to the sacrifices her family made and the challenges of male-dominated Cambridge – when she won’t even receive a proper degree for her studies – the pressure soon becomes unbearable.

But when fire threatens Girton, Hertha can’t stay hidden behind her textbooks and must take action to keep her new friends safe. Against all odds, she recruits her friends to create first ever all-female Fire Brigade. This intrepid band of unlikely firefighters resolve to put out fires wherever they find them – and they find plenty.

Before long, Hertha and her crew realise that they’re part of a bigger battle: for the right to earn a degree, the right to work as a scientist, and the right to vote.  

So, instead of putting out fires, maybe it’s time to start a few instead…?  

The Cambridge First All-Ladies Fire Brigade is a powerful, passionate tale of how positive change can happen, how everyone can make their mark on society – and how we’re not finished yet. 

• Watch Lydia Shaw sing “What We Deserve” at Southampton Stage Door “Showtime” with Teddy Clements on piano and Jonathan Ferguson on drums.