PLAY FIGHT (Finborough Theatre)****

  

By Cal

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGFDp_Pu-d8 

Available until: 8th April

Content warning: The play contains strong language, and themes of violence, including sexual violence, and sexual abuse. 16+

Play Fight won the ETPEP prize in 2020. Every year, the Finborough Theatre runs a playwriting competition for people who have worked in the theatre industry for at least two years but have never worked as playwrights. If anyone wants to enter this year, they’ll need to hurry up because the deadline is 30^th April.

Play Fight is about three young women. At the start of the play, Keira, Zainab and Lucy are all fifteen. The play follows them over the next few years, as sex becomes more and more a part of their lives. For Keira, it’s something to do as soon as possible. For Lucy, a practising Christian, it’s something to be saved until marriage. Zainab is less certain of what she wants from sex… at first.

But how much of it is actually what they want and how much is just what’s expected of them?

Play Fight explores where this can lead. The pain it can cause, whether it’s physical or emotional. The genuine tragedies which can take place because of decisions people might feel they have no choice but to make. Some of the time, it seems like a game – and even if it doesn’t, maybe it’s easier to pretend it is, to yourself and to others. Maybe that’s the only way to make it bearable.

Julia Grogan’s play is very powerful. Her characters are quite different in terms of outlook and ambitions, but they have one very important thing in common. They’re all facing the same expectations and trying to come to terms with the same beliefs. They don’t always make good decisions and sometimes that’s heartbreakingly clear to us, but even more horrifying is the way they seem to feel they’re making the only decisions possible. They can choose their educational options, but some things apparently can’t be chosen. It’s horrific, and it’s so important that plays like this are raising awareness of yet another terrible thing that’s going on in the world and needs to be stopped. It’s not even just the sexually adventurous girls like Keira. Lucy is far from sexually adventurous, but she is part of this world too.

The play is filmed on Zoom, but director Blanche McIntyre has created a greater intimacy by hiding the Zoom screens and giving the characters identical plain backgrounds. They’re rarely seen onscreen side by side in their separate screens. It’s so easy to believe they’re all in one room together. I’m not saying the Zoom screens make a play less real. I have seen far too many brilliant Zoom productions to believe that. But it doesn’t feel like a Zoom production and the fact a Zoom production can be presented in this way is very exciting for digital theatre.

Robyn Cara is emotionally powerful as Zainab, showing us everything she feels as Helen Monks’ Keira tries to pretend she doesn’t care and Hannah Millward’s Lucy remains calm, sweet… and not safe. All three actors are intense, completely committed and they give very convincing and thoroughly absorbing performances. Their characters’ stories are very interesting and so sad.

A worrying play, with a warning message which we all need to take seriously.