I haven’t stopped thinking about Girls since I left the Young Vic. It’s like being pulled into a memory that isn’t even mine, and I still haven’t climbed back out. That’s Girls.
Directed by Ewa Dina in her Young Vic debut, this production takes the 2014 Chibok kidnapping, an event still painfully unresolved in Nigeria, and handles it with a tenderness and precision that is rare to witness on a stage.
Three central performances carry the weight of the piece, and they carry it as one. There’s a trust between Hannah Akhalu (Tisana), Sewa Zamba (Ruhab) and Tara Tijani (Haleema) that you can feel in every shared glance, every synchronised movement, every quiet beat where nothing is said and everything is understood. There’s a choreography to their relationship. Before the story pulls it apart, the movement itself becomes its own kind of language.
Theresa Ikoko‘s writing is what makes their bond so believable. She gives these girls lines weaved with modern, familiar references, the kind of in-jokes and shorthand you’d recognise from your own friendships, and that’s exactly what draws you into the circle with these girls. These aren’t just conversations happening somewhere far away. They’re the same conversations we have with our own friends.
What struck me most was the balance.
This is a play that lets you laugh, genuinely laugh, inside a story about unimaginable trauma, and it never feels like a betrayal of the subject. If anything, the humour makes the weight land harder. Just as you settle into the warmth of these girls’ friendship, the production uses light, sound, texture and space to pull you sharply back into the history sitting underneath it, a history that is not distant at all.
Elliot Griggs‘ lighting does as much storytelling as the three actors standing beneath it. It isn’t just atmosphere, the way light moves through the space has its own personality, pulling you out of your comfort and into harsh memories with a siren of flickers.
Raphaé Memon‘s set and costume design works the same way; texture and subtle outfit changes do quiet, devastating work, while the staging itself envelops you without overwhelming you. Overall, the entire production is a masterclass in cohesion.
You’re close enough to catch the stolen glances between characters, the things said without words, which makes the eventual fracture between the girls feel personal rather than unintentionally observed. There’s a thread stitched through about what trauma does to people who were once simply, wholly together, and what it takes to stay bound to each other in the most difficult and challenging circumstances.
It brought to mind kintsugi, the art of repairing broken pottery with gold, where the cracks aren’t hidden but become part of the object’s value. That’s the feeling Girls leaves you with: something shattered, and something still whole.
By the end, there wasn’t a dry eye in the theatre. And maybe that’s the uncomfortable truth sitting underneath it all, we get to cry, and then go home, and move on with our day. The families this play honours to don’t have that privilege.
Girls is a vital, unflinching tribute to the schoolgirls of Chibok, and a reminder, simply and firmly, that they were girls. They should never be allowed to become a statistic, and this production makes sure they aren’t.
Go and see it. It changes something in you, in the best way, you won’t leave as the same person who walked in.
NEED TO KNOW:
- Girls plays at the Young Vic until 21 Nov 2026
- Important content note: Girls sits inside captivity, and it doesn’t look away from what that meant for these girls – violence, loss and abuse included. Go in with that expectation and trust that the production handles all of it with care.
- Suitable for age 12+
- Captioned performance: 12 November 2026, 8pm
- BSL performance | 13 November 2026, 8pm
- Relaxed performance | 18 November 2026, 3pm
RELATED LINKS
- Access £15 tickets to see Girls at the Young Vic
- The Young Vic announces it’s 2026/7 Season, ft. the world premiere of Thelma & Louise the Musical, debbie tucker green’s the dissent, August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean, and Theresa Ikoko’s Girls directed by Ewa Dina
- EWA DINA ANNOUNCED AS WINNER OF THE 2026 JMK AWARD
- Ewa Dina and Sarah Jordan Verghese | We Rise
