A powerful testament to the power of sisterhood even in the gravest of circumstances
When 276 schoolgirls were kidnapped in Chibok, Nigeria by terrorist group Boko Haram in 2014, the world was outraged. The hashtag #BringBackOurGirls circulated internationally, and yet 12 years on, 83 of the girls still remain unaccounted for. Amnesty International estimates that over 2,000 women and girls have been abducted by the group since, while the global attention and outrage has long since subsided.
Originally staged in 2016, Theresa Ikoko’s drama Girls remains shockingly relevant ten years later. Diving into the everyday horrors of the girls’ existence, Ikoko does stay away from the graphic reality of the sexual violence, which although less accurate, does make the play more bearable for an audience to endure.
Focusing heavily on the bonds between three kidnapped girls, the script brings considerable lightness to their situation, as the audience go from cackling one moment to wiping away tears the next. All performers are extraordinarily strong, each portraying a different aspect of camp survival ‘strategy’, and how a girl might behave in the most brutal of circumstances.
Haleema (Tara Tijani), is the leader of the group, constantly plotting about how they can escape. Tijana hits every comic beat, constructed by director Ewa Dina, adding considerable lightness to subject matter that couldn’t be more serious. Ruhab (Sewa Zamba), is a typical boy-crazy teen, which in a terrorist camp manifests as a captive who is willing to marry her captor in order to survive. Tisana (Hannah Akhalu), is the most naive of the group, escaping her reality through fantasies of her rescue and the honour she would bring on her family.
A traverse stage allows the audience to envelop the girls, with a few additional seats on the stage itself, a square of red dirt littered with newspapers, created by designer Raphaé Memon. The set is completed by a row of televisions broadcasting various visuals to support the action, finally revealing just a handful of the girls abducted, many of whose fates are still unknown.
The play also exposes the toxicity of Nigerian culture, with Ruhab lamenting that even if she escaped, the fact that she had been raped by a captor would lead her and anyone associated with her to be ostracised from society. Tisana resists conversion to Islam for fear of shaming her Christian father, willing to undergo floggings just to avoid wearing a hijab.
Sitting at two hours with no interval, the shorts scenes do become repetitive as the three personality types of the girls are expressed on rotation, with several moments revisited that could have been cut. Despite this, Girls has a rich script with sublime performances from the cast, making it a completely watchable, if shocking production.
Girls runs at the Maria Theatre at the Young Vic until 21 November, 2026