'The Virgins' review — this well-crafted portrait of modern adolescence is both a comedy and a warning cry

Read our review of Miriam Battye's new play The Virgins, now in performances at the Soho Theatre to 4 March.

Summary

• Miriam Battye’s new play premieres at the Soho Theatre
• The story follows teenage boys and girls as they struggle with changing bodies and feelings
• The strong cast includes Anushka Chakravarti and Molly Hewitt-Richards
• The production features effective set design by Rosie Elnile

How well do you remember your teens? Watching Succession writer Miriam Battye’s latest play, they may well come flooding back: first the fizzy thrill of preparing to go “out out” for the first time, then the strangling anxiety of being confronted with the opposite sex and not having a clue how to manage expectations. The Virgins speaks both specifically to now – a post #MeToo landscape in which boys are heavily cautioned about approaching girls, while simultaneously learning about sex through desensitising porn – and to the timeless tropes of adolescence: changing bodies, burning desires, and brain-fogging confusion over how to approach any of it.

Battye has a real aptitude for capturing the state of contemporary romantic relationships. The Virgins could even be called a companion piece to her Strategic Love Play, and if that earlier title was an intense exploration of the transactional nature of online dating, here she suggests our disillusionment and suspicion of the opposite sex was probably cemented during our earliest sexual encounters.

On the surface, though, it’s much lighter than that. Chloe (Anushka Chakravarti) and her best friends Jess (Ella Bruccoleri) and Phoebe (Molly Hewitt-Richards) are getting ready to go clubbing for the first time. But tearing up the dance floor isn’t the end goal – losing their virginity is. And the night has all the right ingredients to be a success: cute outfits, vodka lemonades, a parent-free house for getting ready and returning to, and a mentor in the form of a cool, pretty girl from the year above, Anya (Zoë Armer).

The girls aren’t the only ones prepping to party though. As they practise strengthening their gag reflexes with toothbrushes in the bathroom, next door Chloe’s older brother Joel (Ragevan Vasan) and his mate Mel (Alec Boaden) are also considering a night out. Even if the boys’ preparation is far more chilled, and really only involves playing video games and avoiding talking about their feelings, Jaz Woodcock-Stewart’s production masterfully captures the agonising awkwardness many young men feel too, with Vasan crumpling to the floor in despair over his bottled-up feelings for Jess.

Indeed, there’s fine physical comedy all round here, especially from Hewitt-Richards’ Phoebe, the group’s chronicler, who in several moments manages to enact that excruciating feeling of wanting the ground to swallow you up. And though it’s probably not too big a spoiler to say it doesn’t end with them all shaking off the virginity they describe wearing in terms not dissimilar to how Jacob Marley might refer to his chains, direction from intimacy coordinator Raniah Al-Sayed ensures two should-be tender scenes encapsulate the widening gender chasm.

Rosie Elnile’s set design supports this too, with the stage divided into a bathroom and living room, with a hallway running in between. The girls have monopolised the brightly lit, buttercup-yellow bathroom, while the boys are dominating the dimly lit lounge.

There are moments where it sags, though this may be more to do with Battye’s refusal to deliver a straight-up comedy, instead challenging us with a play that slows down the dialogue as it grows progressively dark and vaguely surreal, as carnal impulses take charge. Its final moments are not an easy watch, but perhaps something of a warning cry for a world in which adolescent boys and girls want each other but can’t communicate their feelings.

The Virgins is at the Soho Theatre to 4 March.

Photo credit: The Virgins (Photos by Camilla Greenwell)