A very funny show about the importance of friendship and the pain of those friendships ending.
Posh Girls is a two-hander play about two ex-best friends, Alex and Hermione, who meet unexpectedly in the waiting room for therapy a decade after their friendship acrimoniously ended. The shows creators, Sophie Robertson and Harriet Chomley, wrote, performed, and produced the show which straddles the decade to show Alex and Hermione in the modern day as flawed woman entering their thirties trying to piece together their lives and their friendship, and also flashbacks to the posh boarding school where these two were inseparable.
Both women give strong performances with characters that compliment each other well with one seeming more kooky and ditzy, with the other being more grounded and cynical. They have a clear strong chemistry between them which makes their conversations feel incredibly authentic while also being heightened with line perfect delivery. While the show is strongest during the more comedic and outlandish moments, the more dramatic and emotional scenes do also pack the necessary weight to make you care about these characters. The highlight for me was a moment in the show where Alex talks about her peloton and her marriage. This blended together the comedy well with the realisation of how awful her marriage truly was for her.
The script is very witty with both characters having some very funny comedic moments and fast one-liners. The friendship seemed fully realised with inside jokes, silly nicknames, and a clear shared history. While some scenes in the show did not pack the same punch as others, both performers bring a great amount of energy to each moment and do well to keep you engaged.
There were some slightly awkward moments in the show, with some extended blackouts and scene changes which were just a bit too clunk with a being perhaps a bit too obvious that we were just waiting for the actors to change costumes. The party scene towards the end of the show, while presumably designed to feel chaotic, did perhaps go slightly too far in this regard, with the actors going into the audience and lines of dialogue being lost over the loud music.
At its heart, this story is about friendship and how important these relationships can be, but then how painful such an important friendship ending can be. The characters being two posh girls did not have much bearing on the actual story itself, with their poshness and privilege in this regard not being relevant or even alluded to as part of the narrative. It is the butt of a few funny jokes, but the show does not seem to actually have much to say about the girls being posh, but rather it felt like a story that could happen across the socio-economic spectrum.
In conclusion, this is a strong show from two strong creatives that entertains throughout, and if you have a strong desire to laugh at the absurdity of the upper classes (with mentions of Tatler and high fashions), then this is definitely the show for you.
Posh Girls is playing at the Kings Head Theatre until the 2nd February.