★★★

“this production pulls on every bit of substance and brightness that it can”

Female friendship. It’s a bit of a media minefield, if we’re honest — full of portrayals of women betraying one another, being pitted against each other, or some combination thereof. Then there are the bubblegum and candy-floss versions that aim to act as though women never fall victim to the societal conditioning that causes them to view each other as competition. Miriam Battye’s Scenes with Girls aims to walk the tightrope between these worlds, showing us women who are trying, ostensibly, to fight the conditioning that tells them they need men in their lives, that it’s acceptable to abandon your friendships when a boy comes along offering you not just attention, but sex as well. It’s a shame then, that the text never really manages to make us believe in the relationships that we’re observing.

Originally premiering at the Royal Court in 2020, Scenes with Girls follows Lou and Tosh, two best friends who are determined to buck what they refer to as “the narrative” — effectively, the idea that they are meant to centre boys and romance in their lives. They take two very different approaches to the matter, Lou’s being more “practical” and Tosh’s more “theoretical” — at least, according to Lou, which seems to make Tosh bristle. Lou views sex through what we would probably view as a traditionally masculine lens. She talks on and on about her various exploits, while consistently congratulating herself on her personal detachment from the act itself. Tosh, however, has seemingly taken something of a vow of celibacy, though she never says it in so many words. This, the relationship with Lou, is enough for her. It’s all that matters. If only Lou could understand it, too. Occasionally, their former flatmate Fran makes appearances. She’s been coaxed to the dark side, as it were — dating a man that Lou and Tosh clearly both view as milquetoast at best. They’re needlessly cruel about Fran, saying awful things about her behind her back, and every time she goes to the toilet. The whole situation feels like a strangely low-stakes powder keg, primed for explosion.

But whatever the story may lack, this production pulls on every bit of substance and brightness that it can. As Tosh, Lyndsey Ruiz is a gorgeous balance of self assuredness and latent rage. She loves Lou desperately and just wants to be loved in return. Hannah Renar’s Lou is a lovely foil. She almost never stands still, as though there’s something inside of her, just aching for release. But she plays her distraction, her mild disinterest in Tosh with skilful subtlety. Eli Rose-Cooper’s Fran, though not leant a terrible amount of complexity in the text, is lovely as well — we spend very little time with her, but we see her inner conflict, how much she wants to be part of what Tosh and Lou share, how much she still needs these women in her life. These accomplished performances are complimented by some well-considered music choices, as well as very clever lighting design by Phil Hamilton.

All in all, one leaves the theatre wishing that the topics at hand were better explored. They’re important, relevant, and ones that we rarely see represented with the appropriate complexity on stage or screen. That being said, this version of Scenes with Girls is well worth a watch.

THE BRIGHTENING AIR

Old Vic

★★★★

“a rich and entertaining family drama”

“How are you doing?”, a priest asks jittery Dermot (Chris O’Dowd) midway through this fine new play. “I’m fine”, replies deadpan Dermot, although “the circumstances around me are challenging”.

Dermot is not alone in his plight. In the ramshackle Irish farmhouse that is the setting for Conor McPherson’s eagerly anticipated Chekhov adjacent play, the circumstances would test the most placid of souls.

The future of the farmhouse brings the family together as uneasily as opposing magnets. Three siblings own the place. Two live there and the third – Dermot amid a midlife crisis – has returned from afar thinking there’s money to be made.

He has an ally in a blind renegade priest (Seán McGinley) – their uncle – but finds himself in opposition to his brother Stephen (Brian Gleeson) and sister Billie (Rosie Sheehy) who have made the place their home, combatting the damp, fighting off foxes and shuffling cows with a mindless resilience.

Like the mouldering walls, the family tensions have been left to fester so there’s more than a reckoning about property deeds in McPherson’s atmospheric and busy play.

Elsewhere Lydia (Hannah Morrish) wants a magic potion – “water with muck in” – to win back faithless Dermot’s love, but Dermot, railing impotently against the strictures of family, has found himself beguiled by 19-year-old minx Freya (Aisling Kearns) who turns up with an air of entitlement and her own little plots to pursue.

Billie, accident-prone and on the autistic spectrum, obsesses about trains, paint and chimpanzees. She also speaks in unvarnished and abrasive truths which is a useful means to bring simmering tensions to the boil. Stephen is angry – about having to look after Billie, but also having no life, no money, no love…

Writer-director McPherson says he conceived the 1980s-set drama in an airport after he was thwarted by Covid from seeing his own adaptation of Uncle Vanya. But knowledge of Chekhov is less use than an ear for Irish dialect and an ability to keep up with the scores yet to be settled.

The title, McPherson says, comes from a WB Yeats poem, The Song of Wandering Aengus, and “encapsulates that moment where dreams meet reality, and our most important illusions fade away”.

The ensemble cast fully embraces the opportunities presented by a phenomenal script, littered with miracles, mysticism and mischief. O’Dowd is a marvel, wiry and self-pitying. He brings his immense comedic presence to a play that is very, very funny. Rosie Sheehy is by turns blunt and lyrical, even her recitations of train routes hinting at romance and adventure. Morrish and Gleeson are the stoic heartbeat of the piece.

The first acts are all about slow-burn set-up against Rae Smith’s barren farmhouse backdrop. Which means the post-interval plot twists are something of a hurried cascade. Even in a play which relies on a hint of folkloric magic, the dramas happen unfeasibly fast, relying on an overworked denouement to create a sense of theme and purpose.

Pacing aside, this is a rich and entertaining family drama, delighting in the divisions that uniquely arise from semi-strangers who are bound together by the same blood and forebears.

SCENES WITH GIRLS

Golden Goose Theatre

★★★

“this production pulls on every bit of substance and brightness that it can”

SCENES WITH GIRLS

Golden Goose Theatre

Reviewed on 25th April 2025

by Stacey Cullen

Photography by Herbie Barlow

Previously reviewed at this venue:

SCENES WITH GIRLS

SCENES WITH GIRLS

SCENES WITH GIRLS

THE BRIGHTENING AIR

Old Vic

★★★★

“a rich and entertaining family drama”