Scenes with Girls – Golden Goose Theatre, Camberwell

Writer: Miriam Battye
Director: Alex Stroming

Reviewer: Christine Stanton

“Insufferable Characters“

1.5 / 5

Tosh and Lou are best friends, despite their vastly different lifestyle choices. Tosh has committed herself to a vow of celibacy, while Lou is focused on increasing her body count as much as possible, delving into as many unique and unusual sexual activities as she can find. 22 scenes showcase snippets of the girls conversations in this exploration of relationships, identity and societal expectations.

Miriam Battye’s fast-paced script is a no holds barred, brash insight, supposedly into close female relationships, yet it’s seemingly more explorative of frenemies rather than the best friends Lou (Hannah Renar) and Tosh (Lyndsey Ruiz) claim to be. The two insufferable characters are a terrible depiction of friendship – both are controlling, jealous, self-centred, spiteful and bitchy, making them hard to relate to or root for as a duo. At one point they self-depict as unkind, crediting their all girls school education as the flippant explanation as to why their first instinct is a catty remark or scathing comment, but even with their self-awareness, there is little development of either character throughout the runtime, so they remain empty and flat throughout.

Desperate to be ‘different’ and ‘not like other girls’, on their quest to veer from the path of societal norms, they reject ideas of monogamy and romance, though all their conversations and ambitions lead to wanting exactly that. When their ex-roommate Fran (Elinor Sumption) visits with the news she’s recently engaged, the pair hurtle down an insecure spiral of contempt, forcing Fran to question her new fiancé and ultimately decide whether she’s even with him for the right reasons. Uptight and strait-laced Fran is equally, yet oppositely desperate, instead of wanting to be different she tries so hard to fit in with the pair in the hope they’ll accept her more, which leads to some unexpectedly quite sad scenes of her left out and mocked, which Sumption depicts with a good amount of enthusiasm and emotion.

Director Alex Stroming leans into the erratic, fast-paced nature of the script, ensuring there are very few moments of downtime. The dialogue is very unnecessarily shouty, and feels quite contrived, the delivery of lines never really feeling natural or believable, and instead very performative. Emily Nelson’s set design is visually captivating straight from the beginning – the homeliness in the messy room immediately setting the scene and matching the haphazard, chaotic nature of the girls friendship

If it was re-tweaked with more of a focus, or if the ‘mean girls’ style relationship/power dynamics was funnier, it would be easier to enjoy, the nature of their nastiness could lead to more laughs and better integration into the script, but as it stands, there isn’t anything humorous enough to classify it as a comedic show, and their friendship isn’t likeable enough to deem it as a exploration on friendship. With friends like these – who needs enemies!

Runs until 3^rd May 2025