We Used To Be Girl Scouts
★★★★☆ Does Its Best
theSpace on The Mile (Venue 39): Sun 4 – Sat 24 Aug 2024
Review by Hugh Simpson
Hey Thanks! Theatre Collective and New Celts’ We Used To Be Girl Scouts is a heartfelt production that is as smart as it is emotional.
Emery Schaffer’s extremely impressive play features students in an American high school. Mary (Hannah-Mae Engstrom) wants to escape an abusive parent, Drew (Trystan Youngjohn) thinks she might be pregnant, and Sasha (Samuela Noumtchuet) is gearing up to tell her best friend she loves her.
We Used to be Girl Scouts. Pic Iain Davie
From the start, it is clear we are in capable hands. Short sequences of monologues introduce the characters, but – just when this is on the point of getting annoying – the three stories are meshed together elegantly into one narrative, as Mary’s plan to run away to New York involves the others.
There is a liveliness to the dialogue, and an immediacy to the acting that is highly involving. Engstrom has a buttoned-up self-criticism as the would-be leader who has nothing and nobody to lead. Noumtchuet has real presence as the constantly well-behaved student who keeps finding that there is nothing to rebel against; even coming out isn’t an adventure when everyone else already seems to know. There is a sadness to Youngjohn’s characterisation that is almost too deep for words, despite an insistence that everything is fine.
profound themes
There are profound themes and life experiences here, but one of the joys of the writing is that if it ever seems like getting preachy, there is a joke or a spark of real life to undercut it.
The direction of Kate Stamoulis is vibrant and energetic, but always in the service of the text and the actors. There is the odd bit of on-stage business and design that is more fussy than it needs to be (such as some unnecessary fussing with a pillar that has clearly already become a tree without having its branches adjusted) but most of it works smoothly.
This is an evocation of teenage pain and joy that is both serious and funny. And the reason the characters end up speaking for others is because they are speaking for themselves.
Running time: One hour and 5 minutes (no interval)
theSpace on the Mile (Space 3), 80 High St, EH1 1TH (Venue 39)
Sunday 4 – Saturday 24 August 2024
Even dates only: 4.40pm
Details and tickets: Book here
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We Used to be Girl Scouts. Pic Iain Davie
ENDS
