Drunk Girls Cry Here at The Hope Theatre, London Review
Written by Becky for Theatre and Tonic
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review. All views are our own
Content warnings include strobe lighting, strong language, drug use, sexual content and themes of sexual assault.
A long, messy night out condensed into an hour-long performance, Eva Regan’s ‘Drunk Girls Cry Here’ is an exploration of female friendship in some of its most brutal yet tender forms. Set inside the sphere of sisterhood, the ladies’ toilets, Regan’s one-act show is unfortunately more attack than substance and follows a story as flawed as the drunk girls themselves.
Flick (Eva Regan), Liv (Áine O’Neill Mason) and Saph (Emily Puttick) are all out on the razz to celebrate Saph’s birthday. We see snippets of the conversations, dilemmas, arguments and antics that take place in the toilets. The drunken ensemble immediately overwhelms the small space, with the cast offering caricatured drunken body language, which sets the tone for the character’s actions for the rest of the play. I felt the direction of this threw off the pacing, with the intensity of the performances giving little room to progress the characters and tone as the night went on.
Regan’s characters are instantly dislikeable, with their friendship seemingly based on gossip, peer pressure and bitterness towards one another. Each character faces their own very personal dilemma, with themes embedded in what it means to be a woman. However, Regan’s characters seemed more interested in their male counterparts (who were ironically more sympathetic than the girls) and how they fit in their social lives rather their real issues. Perhaps Regan is suggesting how men can unknowingly affect female friendships, but it seemed that this is more of a case where their close friendships were simply unbelievable.
Likewise, Regan attempts to tackle sensitive themes such as sexual assault and pregnancy with little nuance. A surprise pregnancy is balanced with a pros and cons list and a situationship, while a sexual assault that takes place during the show is left undealt with. Those are just two examples of where the narrative is desperately seeking female solidarity but ends up in drunken bickering and gossip.
While I appreciate the complex dynamics of female friendship, Drunk Girls Cry Here was disappointingly lacking in strong female voices to drive the narrative, and unfortunately was an uncomfortable watch.
Drunk Girls Cry Here plays at The Hope Theatre from 12-16 May.
★ ★
