Girls and Dolls

Girls and Dolls
Old Red Lion
Running time – 90minutes approx
Running dates: 3rd February – 21st February


Two girls tell the same story, both reiterating and contradicting what the other says. The characters dialogue continuously overlaps with each other and there is constant repetition of words and phrases for dramatic emphasis.

All these theatrical devices are reminiscent of plays such as Charlotte Keatley’s My Mother Said I Never Should which are guaranteed to appeal to GCSE drama students but unfortunately lack much sophistication.

Two girls in their early twenties reflect upon their childhood, growing up in Belfast. Thick as thieves back then, but no longer in touch now, the memories come flooding back as they share the same stories with the audience and become the various influential figures from their youth.

Set against the backdrop of the strife in Northern Ireland in the 1980s, these young girls are wrapped up in their own world of stealing sweets to set up a shop and playing in their tree house. All the while, writer, Lisa McGee is hinting that all is not as idyllic as it seems.

The main flaw with this style of writing is that it never really delves beneath the surface. All the characters are one dimensional stereotypes, which although often funny, make absolutely no impact whatsoever. Niamh McGrady as Clare and Bronagh Taggart as Emma take on the roles of various characters from their neighbourhood as they reminisce: the older boy who sold them his tree house, the two local gossips, the local man who has been facially disfigured in a fire, both of their parents and Dervla – the beautiful single mum.

McGrady and Bronagh do the best they can with a fairly limited script. They slip between the various characters with ease, and bring out the comedy in the script. However the problem lies in the subtlety of the writing, which is about as subtle as an IRA attack. The constant hints that Clare is being abused by her father and suggestions that something awful is going to happen that will change their friendship forever are so incessant that by the time we reach that moment it is a complete anticlimax.

Girls and Dolls tries to include anything and everything and unfortunately achieves very little for its efforts. A cast of twenty played by two actors, the use of symbolic prop after symbolic prop and several references to The Wizard of Oz are thrown in.

If they had just kept things simple and not tried to be clever maybe they would have had far more chance of flying over that much discussed rainbow.