It’s not unusual for a coming-of-age play to make some audience members feel old. Julia Grogan’s story of three friends, focusing on them at the ages of 15, then 18, shocks and surprises. Its characters might feel almost alien. At least, I felt ancient, and the play is all the better for that.
There is a lot here that is extreme. There’s a suicide at the start – of a young man who has sex with one of the 15-year-olds without knowing her age – and self-harm features prominently. Sexual violence is more than the backdrop to these young lives – it shapes them, and it is scary.
The frank discussions of sex, the prevalence of pornography and the girls’ different desires might also be termed extreme. These teens are “dreaming of bliss” and want nothing less. Searching for belief, with either Christianity or a vaguely pagan connection with the tree they all meet under, baffles a bit, too (and, with the latter, leads to a literally fantastic, dreamlike scene).
Grogan deals with her material so cleverly we cannot write it off as exaggeration. First, there is humour. Playflight is a raucously funny script, that will make you “crease” (as the kids say). A lot of the laughs come from the girls’ vivid imaginations – some of what they say, occasionally out of ignorance, is crazy. But even when their world-weary pretence slips and we see them as naïve children, what they are going through feels real. And they are tired sick of how they are treated.
Director Emma Callander treads the fine line within this serious comedy with a skill that matches the script. The performances from Nina Cassells, Sophie Cox and Lucy Mangan are superb (just consider how we see them grow up – a short final scene is when they are 24). They are fantastic roles. Presented as sex-obsessed, studious and saintly – an odd trio you might find difficult to see as friends – Grogan refuses to make them stereotypes. Keira, who seems not to care, is full of concern as well as sharp, challenging, arguments, Zeinab’s romantic desires for Lucy are more complex than a teenage crush, while Lucy is far more than the little girl lost she might seem (or pretend) to be.
Along with plenty of laughs, there is a foreboding tension that makes the piece distinctive. And its arguments about how women are treated are as powerful as they are forthright. Confounding, without being contrary, is a tough move to pull off. It’s this that makes the play so exciting (and makes you keen to see what comes next from Grogan). I bet Playfight proves memorable and I’m old enough to spot that.
Until 26 April 2025
Photo by Paul Blakemore
