When a show advertised at 60 minutes comes in at 45 it has a lot of work to do to get its point across. Piss Girls comes into London after an Edinburgh Fringe run last summer and is certainly not without dramatic storylines.
Gemma and Faye become friends when the latter has her period and needs a tampon. It’s difficult to know how old they are meant to be – important later – but I guessed 14.
Piss Girls is set in various loos with sticky floors and grimy bowls across a number of meetings between the two. Topics covered include eating disorders, depression and suicide, sexual assault and coercion, and lesbianism.
Despite the best intentions of those involved, these difficult issues fail to resolve themselves and leave more questions than answers. Each topic deserves exploration and as all other characters are only mentioned in passing and remain off-stage, it is hard to become invested.
The two writer-performers,Brooke McCloy and Samantha Dilena, capture adolescent angst and friendship (dancing together, dealing with drinking too much, experimenting with pills) but stop short of fully maturing their characters.
There’s also a slight issue of tone as Piss Girls starts out light and then staggers a little as each issue adds a heavy layer to proceedings. I feel there is a 70 or even 90 minute play here straining to get out.
I’d point to Boys on the Verge of Tears by Sam Grabiner as an strong example of using time, space and similar location across short scenes. In Piss Girls, 8 scenes in 45 minutes offers brevity without depth.
Both Gemma and Faye are complex characters, and though the bathroom conversations ring true – and the choreography and use of toilets on wheels and as storage is inspired – Piss Girls left me wanting much more.
2 stars.
Piss Girls continues at the Hope Theatre until 5 Jul.