Golden Girls is a 1984 play by Louise Page that was commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company and was first performed at The Other Place, premiering on 20 June 1984, directed by Barry Kyle. Before reading the full script for the play, at least nine of the cast members were under the impression that they would be taking the lead role. The same cast performed the play at the Gulbenkian Studio, Newcastle-upon-Tyne from 18 to 23 March 1985 and it transferred, with some cast changes, to The Pit in London, where it played from 29 April to 10 September.

Page commented that she wanted to write a play about the "politics of sport" and that Golden Girls was "about desire and ambition and the ambition to be absolutely the best." The play addresses numerous themes including unfair treatment of women in sport, the difficulties of balancing a personal life with being an elite sportsperson, racism in advertising, and the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sport. Although Page's writing received a mixed critical reception, Kyle's direction was generally praised, and Josette Simon's performance as Dorcas Ableman was acclaimed.

The British national women's hundred-metres relay team is currently training for an international event in Athens, with their coach and medical staff on hand. The team is sponsored by a cosmetics firm seeking to boost its sales. To enhance performance, the team doctor informs the athletes that they are being administered a new, undetectable fortifying drug, Hydromel. However, on the day of the event, the most ambitious of the athletes, Dorcas, decides to exceed the prescribed dose and is subsequently caught. Although the team wins the race, a scandal erupts. Dorcas receives a lifetime ban, but her ambition continues to haunt her.

Golden Girls was commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). Author Louise Page later reflected that writing Golden Girls, with a cast twice the size of what she had previously written, "was quite difficult ... I sort of assumed it was going to be half the number of lines for twice the number of people – but it does not work that way at all! And I had to learn to write exit lines. One of the problems with having a lot of characters on stage is how you get them off again." Kenneth Branagh wrote in his autobiography that before the script was available, as many as eight of his fellow cast members were under the impression that they were playing the lead. He recalled that on the first day of rehearsals, the script had still not arrived, and as rehearsals progressed, "Louis's re-writes were arriving very slowly, and everyone was desperately throwing their weight around and implying that they might leave at any moment. The actors felt betrayed, Louise felt persecuted, and [director] Barry. I'm sure, felt both". Branagh and castmate Jimmy Yuill trained with RSC member and fitness enthusiast Brian Blessed as part of their preparation for roles as athletes, while the actresses playing athletes took sprint training. Despite his concerns about the preparation and his own performance, Branagh considered that the first run of performances was successful, and pleased the audiences.

The central role of the Black runner Dorcas Ableman drew on Simon's own experience of being an athlete; Page later related that the play had been rewritten from an ensemble piece, as "the sheer dynamism Josette brought to the role meant that it was her journey through the play with which the audience identified". The play helped establish Page's reputation as a playwright.

Golden Girls was first staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company at The Other Place, directed by Barry Kyle, premiering on 20 June 1984. Kit Surrey was the designer, costumes were by Allan Watkins, music was by Ilona Sekacz, and lighting was by Wayne Dowdeswell. The same cast performed the play at the Gulbenkian Studio, Newcastle-upon-Tyne from 18 to 23 March 1985, and it transferred, with some cast changes, to The Pit in London, where it played from 29 April to 10 September. At the Pit, it was commercially successful, playing to near-capacity audiences.

A version amended by Page was presented at the Leeds Playhouse concurrently with the RSC's London run. Later that year, the Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich staged a production. A two-part radio adaptation, written by Page, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 1986. It was directed by Vanessa Whitburn and included Angela Wynter as Dorcas, Terry Molloy as Bassett, and Berger, Emmanuel and Yuill reprising their roles from the stage versions.

Theatre Calgary presented the play in 1986. Later productions have included those at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry (1986), Perth, Scotland (1989), The Lilian Baylis Theatre, London (1992), and the Mercury Theatre, Colchester (1996), The play had its American premiere in 1987 with the South Coast Repertory's production.