Summerhall, Edinburgh
4 Stars
Friendship never ends in Amy Powell Yeates’ play, which charts the relationship between Charlie and Debs over twenty-five years. This moves from their 1990s schooldays hanging on to every word of the gospel according to the Spice Girls, to becoming women on the verge of middle age, with a ton of shared baggage in tow, and Geri Halliwell’s betrayal lingering still.
This makes for an energetic hour in Claire O’Reilly’s production, which charts the two women’s assorted rites of passage throughout a series of bite size scenes that map out the highs, lows and everything between.
Olivia Forrest as Charlie and Rosa Robson as Debs hurl themselves into the action, moving between teenage ebullience to frustrated thirty-somethings trying to hold on to everything that was special but which now seems out of reach.
Presented in a co-production between Nuthatch theatre company and young Glasgow based production outfit, Scissor Kick, Powell Yeates’ play taps into the very special bonds between female friends. The series of everyday epiphanies that mark out Charlie and Debs’ life are delivered with wit, charm and a poignancy that suggests there may be a little life in there yet in a coming of age that shows how friendship matures over time.
Summerhall until 26th August, 8.55pm
The List, August 2024
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