Review: Our Town Needs A Nando's

Samantha O'Rourke's new play, Our Town Needs a Nando's was written whilst O'Rourke worked in a high school and offered the opportunity for the young playwright to ‘celebrate the brilliant, bold young women’ that she met during her time at the school. The result is a play that offers some snappy, contemporary dialogue, some well-rounded young female characters and some excellent monologues for young actresses.

The play is based on five characters being set a GCSE Drama devising task that often centres on them reflecting on what is great (or, in fact, not so great) about living in the town. The content of the script does feel, at times, to be quite ‘GCSE devising’ with issue-based themes and short scenes that can lack development in places. At points, it is almost as if O'Rourke tries too hard to cover a number of particular issues, whether this be sexuality, race, sexism, abuse, unemployment, the care system, mental health, teenage pregnancy, body image, religion and eating disorders. All of the above are covered and this becomes too crowded in terms of the space allowed for the characters (and the audience) to get to grips with each challenge that they face.

The language also jars a little. There is a lot of swearing, some that feels forced and inauthentic. It is less the profanity (though of course, this might impact on whether a school might want to explore the text) and more so that it can feel out of place, especially when characters have just had an eloquent conversation on a previous page. Some of the dialogue is heartfelt and also witty and I enjoyed the James Bond sketch complete with explanations to who a Bond girl is and what she is known for!

There are some interesting exchanges and monologues that really do work well. A duologue where two girls tell two different stories of a sexual assault, in parallel speeches, is both moving and well-paced. O'Rourke has also written some super monologues that can really empower modern young actresses looking for something meaningful to explore.

Our Town Needs a Nando's is worth investing in. Whilst I felt there were elements of the play that didn't quite work, it is a text that can offer short scenes, duologues or stand-alone speeches for young female performers.