DramaLondonReview

Post Sex Spagbol – VAULT Festival, London

Reviewer: Karl O’Doherty

Writer: Katie Bignell

Director: Caitlin Lee Smith

Who’d be a girl? Katie Bignell’s vibrant work presents a breathtaking tour through a lot of the troubles and hazards of growing up as one. Told largely through the experience of one young 20-something woman, we also get the perspectives of the very young and the more mature woman – all of which adds up to an eye-popping exploration.

Bignell and her co-performers Georgia Wilson and Signe Ebbesen tag team as Krissy. She is neither a counsellor nor a teacher, but she still gets a nepo-baby appointment as both of these things in her old boarding school where her dad works as head teacher. A drunken conversation leads to the resolution to only give bad advice to the students in her care – not ideal when their questions are about feminine hygiene, sex, boys, and lying to parents.

Rapid fire jokes come roaring out of the three performers in this pacy play, covering everything possible from cringy first times and the hollow validation that replies to social media thirst traps can bring, to the infection risk of glitter bath bombs, depression, and the value of foot pics.

This humour is shot through with rivulets of deeper consideration that become a wave as we reach the play’s conclusion. We have an emotive, collective journey that shows the conflicts and inner arguments modern women deal with.

It’s zippy and witty, pretty lewd and rude. Bignell and her co-performers take an axe to prudery and any idea of hesitation or impropriety around girls discussing such intimate and potentially embarrassing details. It presents all the difficulties of growing up a girl in a clear -eyed way – shockingly, but also unfolding the true beauty and power their lives hold.

For those who have gone through it all before on their own journey, it’s sure to bring blinding flashes of recognition and the comfort of knowing that experiences are rarely as unique as we think. For everyone else, it should ensure you never think about puberty, mint shower gel or the meaning of spaghetti in the same way again.

Reviewed on 2 February 2023

The Reviews Hub Score

Zippy and witty, pretty lewd and rude

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The Reviews Hub - London

The Reviews Hub London is under the acting editorship of Richard Maguire. The Reviews Hub was set up in 2007. Our mission is to provide the most in-depth, nationwide arts coverage online.

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