Writer: Milja Marttila
Director: Sarah Majland
Quid Pro Quo Theatre’s well-rehearsed play certainly doesn’t lack ambition in its examination of the pressures that young women are under to be perfect. But this ambition means that the four actors, all playing the main character, have too many issues to cover.
Everything is ticked off: bulimia; self-harm; suicide; inappropriate relationships and the ways that women internalise society’s demands that they conform to narrow parameters. Any one of these subjects could be the focus of a 45-minute show, but by discussing them all, and in the same heightened tones, A Woman Called Girl is overcrowded with ideas.
The play begins, like any good story, with the preparations for a birthday party. Our protagonist, presumably named Girl, is arranging a surprise breakfast for her flatmate Lilly. It should be an easy task but Girl got home later, hangover in tow. It doesn’t seem such a great idea to make croissants from scratch as she’d planned.
Lilly is a horrible character, right out of Mean Girls, including the outstretched arm, crooked at the elbow, her thumb rubbing the fingernails. Here’s she’s played with an extra Winona Ryder chill. Lilly’s best friends are called Stupid and Nasty and they live up to their names. They are as shallow as a puddle, but occasionally chief Valley Girl Lilly has her uses.
The four actors, along with other characters, also share the role of Girl. One version of her is more emotional, the other boldly phlegmatic. They make up different aspects of the character and also revisit key moments in the women’s past; family, school and university.
The actors work hard and never miss a beat, an impressive feat seeing as they have to constantly haul white wooden boxes around the stage. But overall, the performance is rather one-note, each line delivered in the same ironic voice. For the play to succeed, there needs to be more light and shade, and perhaps more moments of stillness. As it is now, the actors are always moving, always pouting, always posing in case Society’s looking.
One theme stands out from the others and that is the nature of an unequal relationship demonstrated in the affair Girl has with her (female) professor at university. This familiar narrative seems new with these gender choices. Perhaps a future iteration of the show could focus more on that story.
However, A Woman Called Girl is a slick production and the original music by Öncel Camci is certainly effective in establishing the tenor for the debates. If only there weren’t so many of them
Reviewed on 21 August 2023
Camden Fringe runs until 27 August 2023
