Girls Like That and Other Plays For Teenagers

by Evan Placey

This collection features four urgent and explosive plays by award-winning playwright Evan Placey, each tackling issues facing young people today. They provide ideal material for teenagers to read, study and perform.

Girls Like That explores the pressures caused by technology when a schoolgirl’s naked photograph goes viral. Commissioned in 2013 by Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Theatre Royal Plymouth and West Yorkshire Playhouse, it has subsequently been performed by school and youth-theatre groups across the UK, at the Unicorn Theatre, London, and in the Houses of Parliament. It won the Writers’ Guild Award for Best Play for Young Audiences.

Banana Boys, published here for the first time, is about the challenges of being on the school football team – and secretly gay. It was commissioned and produced by Hampstead Theatre’s Heat & Light Company in 2010.

In Holloway Jones, Holloway dreams of being a world-class BMXer, but she is held back by the tough reality of a parent in prison. Also making its debut in print here, the play was commissioned by Synergy Theatre Project, toured schools and the Unicorn Theatre in 2011, and won the 2012 Brian Way Award for Best Play for Young People.

Finally, Pronoun is a love story about two childhood sweethearts dealing with the fact that one of them, Isabella, has now become a boy. As one of the plays in the 2014 National Theatre Connections Festival it proved enormously popular with youth theatres and college companies.

Genres: Plays

302 pages, Paperback

First published April 12, 2016

Reviews

[Leo Robertson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cool collection!

I can imagine these plays making difficult conversations easier for teens/families. Making young people feel seen. And that's awesome :)

"Girls like that" is the most interestingly structured, as told by an anonymous crowd of teens, just like gossip is told.

I might have liked a bit more depth or originality—consider the complexity of "I May Destroy You" on topics of consent and victim blaming versus "Girls Like That." "Banana Boys" is like "Love, Simon", with a few more teeth, for the stage. But maybe that's a question of the target audience :)

[Callum McLaughlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The four plays in this collection set out to get young people engaged with theatre (both performing and spectating), by exploring topics relevant to them in the modern world. Placey wisely says in the book's intro that specifically targeting older adults (as much theatre does) is all well and good, but they're often more set in their ways and somewhat closed-minded, whereas young people are still malleable and open, hence why stories that encourage acceptance, diversity and kindness amongst them are so important moving forward as a society.

Banana Boys is a touching play about a teenage boy; he's cool, he's popular, he's the star of the school football team, and he's secretly gay. Placey successfully captures how intimidating lad culture can be, though personally I wasn’t totally convinced by the regular interjections from a fictional band, which felt a bit too much like a comic relief device. Perhaps it would work better on stage. [4*]

Holloway Jones is about a girl who comes from pretty rough beginnings (born in prison to a mother who is still incarcerated). She has the makings of an Olympic level BMXer, but is held back by poor life choices and a sense of being destined to remain trapped by her past. It explores the idea of turning your life around, and not being afraid to cut people from your life if the relationship is toxic. Being as un-sporty as you can be, the cycling sections didn't interest me, but I liked the themes and the dynamic it explored between Holloway and her mother. [3*]

Girls Like That is about the aftermath of a girl's nude picture being leaked. The narration style is very interesting, with almost the entire play spoken from the perspective of 'The Girls', with Placey explaining that the number of girls present on stage and how the lines are divided up being at the discretion of the director and actors. This singular, homogenous stream of consciousness cleverly reflects the idea of group mentality; how cliquey teenage girls can be; and how impenetrable their group can be to outsiders. It explores the idea that girls are becoming their own harshest critics and worst enemies, especially in the digital age, and shows gender imbalance regarding the difference between lad culture amongst boys and slut shaming amongst girls. [4*]

Pronoun is a phenomenal play about a transgender teenage boy named Dean, and his ex-boyfriend, Josh, whom he dated when he lived as a girl. It's incredibly touching and shows the emotional struggles that trans people and their loved ones face, including the inner-conflict between feeling like the same person on the inside and yet like a whole new person on the outside, and how overwhelming that can be. Its main theme is that love is so much more than just skin deep, with Dean and Josh being layered, beautifully-drawn characters who are so loveable. [5*]

[Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Banana Boys - 2/5. Lots of cliche dialogue. ‘Edgy,’ but frustrating to read or stage. Teens did not have real voices.
Holloway Jones - 3/5. Cool idea and some good moments, but hard to relate to. Cyclist was a great idea. Wish that had been explored more. Or showed more of ‘the system’ Holloway is caught in, as opposed to summarizing it with exposition.
Girls Like That - 2/5. Interesting idea, but needs to be edited down. Too clunky and heavy for staging.
Pronoun - 3.5-4/5. Strongest piece. Best dialogue. Love the relationship between the 2 boys. Sister and parents need some fleshing out, although their sentiments were great. And friends were interesting, I just wish ‘marriage’ was not the focus for such young characters. Skewed things up in age and makes it less relatable.