Reviewer Alicia Pope finds this play an excellent starting point for discussions around friendship, sexuality, religion and consent.
Playfight is Julia Grogan's debut solo play, first performed at the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The play revolves around friends Keira, Zainab and Lucy, as they navigate from school into adult life. Much of the action takes place under an ancient tree, symbolic of the roots they've put down together and their growth throughout their lives thus far.
As much as the girls are bound together, they are different. Keira is explosive and loud and doesn't hesitate to tell the others the details of losing her virginity on the tennis courts, filming the process and then sharing the video. She later finds herself falling into paid online sex work. Zainab is the pragmatic and methodical one of the group, who is considering her own sexuality and setting her sights on university. Lucy is a Christian, ‘like a cloud with legs’. She is naive but receptive. As the story unfolds, it is Lucy who becomes the focus as she embarks on a dangerous relationship which ultimately ends with her death, with the defence claiming a sex game gone wrong.
Playfight raises many issues pertinent for older students: friendship, sexuality, religion, consent and the dangers of the online world all make excellent starting points for discussion and creating practical work. All three characters offer something for performers to access and the play has a range of duologues and sections with all three characters that would work as the basis for devised performance.
Keira's story of losing her virginity at 15 involves an 18 year-old, who doesn't know her age and subsequently dies by suicide after Keira shares the video. This provides an opportunity to discuss consent and the sharing of content online, as well as the potential for telling the other side of the story. Lucy's relationship with her boyfriend and later husband also offers scope for exploring the lines between consensual acts and abuse.
Playfight is an energetic text with engaging and relatable characters who would appeal to students. Elements of this text are very mature and would be most appropriate for sixth form use, although some of the themes and ideas would certainly be relevant for older KS4 students.