PlayFight
Playfight
Soho Theatre, Main House
Review Complete
“A window into modern-day girlhood”
10th April 2025
Set: The set was minimal with only a ladder in centre stage to represent an old oak tree that the characters spent most of their childhoods around. The play was strictly set to this one location and spanned a number of years, though the set did not change.
Plot: Three young girls in the midst of their GCSEs, find out the hard way the struggles facing women in a world systemically against them. As they grow, their seemingly menial problems escalate to dilemmas that seriously affect their lives and ability to live them. With Lucy struggling with her relationship with God, Zainab coping with a disapproving mother, and Keira trying to reclaim her autonomy through a borderline sex addiction, the only thing that remains a constant throughout is their friendship with one another.
Review: Playfight– Soho Theatre Production Refreshingly imperfect characters in a play that combines girlhood with the looming patriarchy that awaits them’ While I genuinely enjoyed ‘Playfight’ by Julia Grogan, I believe that my appreciation stemmed from being part of its intended demographic. I have difficulty imagining that audience members over 50, or men of any age, would connect with it in the same way. I should warn that audience members must be amenable to leaning into the ‘GCSE drama’ feel of the play, but once I myself chose to look past this I was thoroughly engaged.
One of my biggest pet peeves in the theatre is dialogue that feels engineered. I am pleased to say that not only did Grogan’s dialogue feel realistic, but it was so authentic that I felt myself transported back to my secondary school days. I commend Grogan’s refusal to make her characters palatable, as while I am sure many observers felt the subject matters were crude, sweary and brutally honest, I can confirm with a full heart that today’s schoolgirl’s also share no such filter. Something I find so endearing about Grogan’s style is how, no matter the content of a line, it always wears its heart on its sleeve. In short, even when the girls delivered profanity after profanity, you knew they were just three well-meaning friends with nothing but love for one another.
Most definitely one of the most striking balances between girlhood and banter that I have ever seen. This may be delving into some controversy, but I would hazard to say that just because a subject is important, does not mean that it has not been overdone. If we are whittling our main characters down to the cliches they fall into, we would be left with a repressed Christian girl, the high-achiever who loses sight of their friends on their climb to the top, and the traumatised teenager who acts out sexually. Particularly with our current social climate, I think society really needs more fleshed-out stories about people who fall into these categories, but nevertheless, I can also cite about 20 other plays who explore the same stereotypes in extremely similar ways. While I enjoyed the play for what it was and would recommend it, this is not to say that it was anything particularly new or ground breaking. One thing I absolutely did not struggle with was falling in love with the characters. The play is only a three-woman show yet the stage never feels empty.
The storytelling and dialogue style I found was so encompassing that if I had closed my eyes the entire time I would still have not missed out. The three women in question (Nina Cassells, Sophie Cox and Lucy Mangan) were not only extremely endearing in their own ways but brilliant and believable actresses. I believe their characters portrayed a wide depth of women all with varying social standings, struggles and ambitions. If any young female viewer would not see aspects of herself in at least one of the characters then I would be genuinely surprised. All this to say that the characters were down-to-earth and extremely relatable. They were refreshingly imperfect all while still being distinctly charming to watch, and I found myself missing them even after I left the auditorium. ‘Playfight’ brilliantly portrays the pathways and pitfalls women often face, but falls short in explaining why many find themselves on these paths in the first place. It is implied that the women’s actions and the problems they encounter are purely a matter of poor decision-making.
However, while I know that issues like double standards, violence against women, and systemic expectations complicate that narrative significantly, those uneducated about these topics would not see it this way. To them, a girl selling pictures of her feet while claiming to also feel sexualized, is just a hypocrite. A character like Keira (Lucy Mangan) will always remain a hypocrite in their eyes unless proper context is provided. For example, I understood that Keira acted out sexually in a desperation to reclaim autonomy due to her abusive Father, but since he was only alluded to about twice, I can predict it would go over many people’s heads. If Grogan wants to elicit an emotional response from an audience outside the characters' demographic, providing that essential context is going to be key.
I thoroughly enjoyed this play and found myself constantly laughing. The play explores what it looks like to be a woman who cannot just choose their own path no matter what. It is a story about our limitations, and how many choose to face the consequences of defying them but how others choose to settle. It is a window into modern-day girlhood and how friendship can span any social construct. I would highly recommend this play, however I do believe that those of a similar demographic to myself would be those most likely to enjoy it.
Reviewer: Claudia Lynch
Photography: Mihaela Bodlovic
We are Gifted tickets so that in return we may give an honest review. All comments are those of the reviewer and theirs alone.