TWENTY young Hampshire women feature in an urgent, explosive and viciously funny play exploring gender, equality and the pressures of today’s digital society.
The 13 to 21-year-olds are the stars of Girls Like That, brought to Southampton by Nuffield Youth Theatre next week.
When a naked picture of schoolgirl Scarlett circulates on social media, the battle lines are drawn, girl against girl. The play takes a glimpse into the lives and minds of teenage girls and asks uncomfortable questions; how a generation of women who fought for the vote, their rights and equality have given birth to daughters who can be so dangerously judgmental and unsisterly? Is this what feminism is now?
Evan Placey, playwright and Creative Writing Fellow at the University of Southampton, is behind the play, which won Best Play for Young Audiences at the Writers Guild Awards 2014.
He told Your Entertainment: "I was interested in writing a large all female cast since there are so few plays for large casts of women. So it’s got 20 young women in it!
"I wanted to write a play about feminism and particularly what young women don't know about feminism.
"They use such unfeminist language and oppressive tools towards each other. It's really hard for teachers to explore those kind of issues. It was about deconstructing all of that really."
The play was inspired by the story of the life of Canadian teenager Amanda Todd who killed herself after a topless photo circulated on the internet led to cyber bullying.
A series of educational workshops around the play will continue.
“I was interested in the reaction of peers to a similar incident to see what they thought and how they spoke to each other," Evan added.
Nuffield Youth Director Max Lindsay said: “This is a fast paced production performed by a tight ensemble of 20 very talented young actresses.
"It has been so inspiring to hand over a lot of moments to the cast to create the world of the play from their own experiences as young women. This has become very personal to these girls and I think that will show when it is performed.”
Girls Like That runs from Thursday to Saturday at Nuffield Theatre.
Tickets are available from 023 8067 1771 or online at nuffieldtheatre.co.uk
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