Playfight. Soho Theatre.

Writer Julia Grogan’s breathtakingly assured debut play arrives at Soho Theatre following stellar reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe and a detour at the Bristol Old Vic. Grogan’s targeting is scattergun, and the strands do not quite come together at the end, meaning its punch ends up lighter than it might be. If a play ever demanded a broader canvas and a longer runtime, it would be this one. But the characterisation and comic writing are blisteringly good, Emma Callander’s pacey direction shines, and the performances are awe-inspiring.

We have to “step our pussies up”, says lippy, sarcastic, and vulnerable Keira (Sophie Cox) to her 14 and 15-year-old school friends Zainab (Nina Cassells, restrained and impeccably understated) and Lucy (Lucy Mangan, otherworldly and haunted). The girls, each in contrasting ways, old souls in young bodies, find different ways of stepping up over the course of a decade. “The funny bits, the ugly bits, and the embarrassing bits” of the trio’s emerging sexuality form Grogan’s subject. The journey for one of them will be dark.

Keira, who defines herself by her attractiveness to boys, has an affection for porn, tequila shots, and underage clubbing. Cox captures her brash fragility perfectly. What Keira learns from her X-rated viewing she acts out on the school tennis courts with an older lad named Dan, recording it for posterity and texting the video to her mates. “It felt holy,” she says, unsurprised that Dan slaps her during sex. “All the year nine’s set off their rape alarms,” when the video goes viral at school.

Born-again Christian Lucy writes poetry, quotes from hymns and the bible, and wonders whether there is more to having an orgasm than a “fuzzy feeling”. Bemoaning the fact she “can’t get no juicy”, she ultimately manages a quick grope on mothering Sunday from a fellow church-goer – that too has a tinge of foreshadowing violence.  Sensible, high-achiever Zainab lives with a deeply homophobic mum and loves Lucy. Her adolescent sexuality consists of endlessly re-reading Jane Austen and “having a wank to Anne Boleyn”, but she too is on a journey.

Grogan sets the action around an ancient tree, an eternal observer (or perhaps reference point) for female friendship and the tribulations of womanhood. One suspects other girls from previous generations have long discussed sex here. Hazel Low’s set, a V-shaped pink step ladder embedded in brown wood chips, brings to mind an inverted vagina as if to emphasise the point.

Grogan has created an entirely convincing internal world for her characters in Playfight. The piece is caustically, brutally funny. But there are almost too many strands and too much going on. Male violence towards women is a constant drumbeat. One of the girls advises on dealing with it: “If you focus hard enough, you can separate your brain from your body”. Dissociation and alienation are themes, and the climate crisis gets a look in, too. In an ideal world, Grogan would slow down and take time to draw some more connections, but this is still an iridescent gemstone of a debut play.

Writer:     Julia Grogan

Director:   Emma Callander