Bitched is a story of identity - of knowing and working out who you have become after marrying, having children, or trying to find your place in creative industries or the workplace. The play focuses on the worlds of the female leads, Ali and Suzanne, both trying to rediscover who they are after experiencing motherhood for the first time, along with the pain of grief, the difficulty of balancing domestic and working life, and in their relationships with their husbands, Rob and Nirjay, who are living the artist’s dream while they attempt to keep everything afloat.

For Ali, she is a woman desperate to see what she is still worth in the working world, despite trying to be the supportive wife to her artist husband, Rob, and a mother to her children, though one is on the way.

Meanwhile Suzanne is still paralysed by grief of loss and is unable to communicate with her husband, Nirjay, whose feelings are only ever made known after reaching the end of a bottle of gin.

While identity as a concept is mostly captured through the idea of female identity, the men in Bitched are vitally important in showing the struggle men have. At one point when a heavily pregnant Ali screams “we’re not out mothers” it feels as though her husband might reply with the difficult question men are dealing with in such a fragile time: “where do I fit in.”

For Rob, he throws himself into his work to try to find his purpose, while for Nirjay, he talks the artist’s talk and lives out a bourgeois fakery instead of real life to elevate his purpose, despite having no idea what that might be.

The cast delivered powerful performances, especially Viss Elliot Safavi as Suzanne, whose character is continuously on tightrope; the audience never knowing if she is to be charming and aloof, wild with grief or stern and tightly-wound.

The set is simplistic, with white boxes and squares making up a perfect art gallery setting which can be quickly turned into a barren homestead, in both its physical presence and in the strained relationships which occupy it.

Bitched displays themes which are relatable and truly affecting, with each character’s struggles in sync with real life, but displayed with sensitivity and authenticity, making it a real triumph.

Bitched, Tristan Bates Theatre, 1A Tower Street, London, WC2H 9NP. Runs until November 11.