We sat down for a chat with Harriet Chomley (Lion’s Den, Camden Fringe) and Sophie Robertson’s (Derry Girls, Channel 4) ahead of their latest project, Posh Girls, coming to London’s King’s Head Theatre in 2025.
Your show delves into the complicated relationships and pressures faced by teenage girls at elite boarding schools. How did you both draw from your own experiences to create these characters, and how much of Hermione and Alexandra’s story is shaped by your real-life reflections?
HC: I drew from experiences I had at school, looking back at that time, and realising how harsh we were on ourselves and the environment we grew up in and had to navigate – it was a time where social media was in its infancy and there was not much communication around consent and pressure on young women was riff. For me these characters are an amalgamation of so many people I know, they are also parts of myself and then bits of Alex are character tropes that we have lent into and turned up a notch for comic relief.
SR: Of course, as a writer you write about what you know to give a truthful depiction of the narrative you are telling. I went to boarding school and it was a time where there wasn’t a conversation around consent and being at a proportionally male school certainly had its challenges. The topics we discuss in the show are major and I believe it to be true that what happens in those formative years can impact you and your choices as an adult. Haz and I would share our unique and vulnerable experiences with one another in such a beautiful and cathartic way, similarly to Alexandra and Hermione, while also talking to our friends, family and broadening our research in other ways to create Posh Girls.
In Posh Girls, you explore themes like competitiveness, peer pressure, and the lack of discussions around consent during adolescence. How do you think these issues still resonate with young people today, and what do you hope audiences take away from these themes?
HC: I think a lot of these issues are on-going and are a part of adolescence when you are discovering who you are and where you fit and I think they are a part of being human, trickling into adulthood. I know there is more awareness now around consent and more conversations being had than when we were growing up, but I still think there is further to go and hopefully the show will stir up some of those conversations, even among friends. Chanel Contos is doing amazing work with her charity Teach Us Consent to change this narrative. I think the themes of friendship will resonate with people of all ages and I hope that what people take away from the show is that it’s never too late to try and repair something, apologise or ask for forgiveness.
SR: We have come a long way from when I was at school due to incredible individuals and organisations making it their mission to not only speak up but educate young adults and schools on consent. For example, the wonderful Everyone’s Invited which is a charity very close to my heart have been fundamental to the ongoing changes we see in our schools today. We live in a world where the media and the ever expanding social media love to pitch women against one another; criticise them for how they age, their bodies, what they eat, how they exercise… It’s exhausting and fundamentally wrong. It is more important than ever for women to support one another. When a tribe of women come together, they are undefeatable.
The dynamic between Hermione and Alexandra shifts from being best friends to complete strangers. Can you both talk about how you approached portraying the complexity of this relationship, and how humour is used to navigate these deep emotional moments?
HC: I think because we’ve both experienced a lot of the things explored in the play, we drew on what we knew and had been through and because we also have a wonderful friendship with each other we were able to discuss a whole range of emotions and ideas without judgement. We both have a very similar sense of humour, and the posh aspect of the play also helps inject humour – we punch up a lot.
SR: The breakdown of female friendships cuts so deep as a teengers and can be incredibly complex; it is no wonder that these two characters would talk about their “breakup” in therapy and its impact on them at 30. We are all just trying our hardest and navigating how to exist in this world as best we can, and we f*** up all the time! What’s wonderful is that human beings are always learning about ourselves and evolving. Humour is so important for not getting weighed down in the bog and it is also a beautiful way to shed light on yourself so you can release grudges and maybe even reconnect with an old friend as we see in the play.
Posh Girls highlights the lasting effects of adolescence on adulthood. How did you ensure that the themes of the play felt both true to your own experiences and relatable to a wider audience, especially those who may not have attended private schools?
HC: Even though these characters went to a private school what they both endured is universal and relatable to most teenagers. The peer pressure and social pressure of growing up in a world that values how you look and how desirable you are to men is so relentless and can take years of unlearning, and I don’t think that discriminates on where you went to school. School can also be a very isolating place for some people whether you went to a public or private school and navigating friendships is something that everyone can relate to – we all need friends to survive and be understood, it’s a sense of belonging which I think we all need at a human level.
SR: As Harriet mentioned, these topics are so universal. Even if you haven’t experienced anything discussed in the play directly, you may know someone that has been bullied or has been victim of sexual assault, or can’t leave a controlling relationship or does struggle with addiction etc. Maybe you have never known what to say because these topics live and breed in secrecy. The fact that it takes place in a private boarding school is secondary to the message that we are sending. We have all been children and Posh Girls allows the audience to look back on their own adolescent years and reflect on the friendships they had and may have lost.
What was the process like for you two as writers and performers, and how did your ongoing friendship and shared reflections influence the development of the play?
HC: It’s been such a dream working with Soph. We work really well together and are pretty honest and open which I think shows in the play – the permission to be silly and ridiculous is such a joy. We both had a pretty similar idea of where we wanted the play to end up and we’re open to where we wanted to take our characters. It’s been an on-going development, just remaining open to ideas and allowing it to move and change and also get rid of things just as quickly as we come up with them.
SR: It has been such a blast creating Posh Girls! I feel immensely grateful that Haz and I have such a wonderful working relationship in the writers’ room and also on stage. The process has been extraordinary, tough at times for sure, but mostly a real joy as we have watched Posh Girls evolve in its various iterations, from our very first idea splurge on a word document earlier this year. Having trust in your writing partner is imperative to creating especially when discussing such tentative topics and this ability to hold each other most definitely translates when we are on stage too.
In Posh Girls, Hermione and Alexandra reconnect after twelve years apart. If you could meet one of your old school friends after such a long time, what would be the first thing you’d want to ask them (or maybe just gossip about)?
HC: I’d want to ask what they would change about their time at school or if there is anything they are still holding on to and I’d love to gossip about my science teacher.
SR: I would be curious to know if they could repeat school, whether they would choose to go to a boarding school again and whether the cigarette in the woods was worth the double detention.
Posh girls will run at the King’s Head Theatre from 28 Jan to 2 Feb 2025.