The Young Vic has put out the first rehearsal photographs from Girls, Theresa Ikoko's play about three teenage friends taken captive by insurgents in Nigeria, ahead of its opening in the Maria on 22 October.
The pictures show director Ewa Dina and the company at work on Girls, which runs in the Maria at the Young Vic from 22 October to 21 November 2026. Press night is 27 October at 7pm.
Dina, winner of the 2026 JMK Award, is directing a cast of three: Hannah Akhalu as Tisana, Tara Tijani as Haleema and Sewa Zamba as Ruhab. Their casting was announced in September.
The setting is Nigeria in 2014. Three teenage best friends spend their days trading celebrity gossip, talk about sex and diet tips, until militants abduct them. With no one but each other to lean on, fear and a difference in faith start to pull at the friendship, and the play asks how much strain it can take.
Ikoko's script won the Alfred Fagon Award in 2015 and the George Devine Award in 2016, and was a finalist for the Verity Bargate Award.
Set and costumes are by Raphaé Memon, lighting by Elliott Griggs and sound by Munotida Chinyanga, with music composed by féz. dkfash is movement director, Sophie Bramley designs and programmes the video, and Haruka Kuroda directs fight and intimacy. Samantha Adams is production dramatherapist and Tomi Ogunjobi is dialect coach.
Performances are Monday to Saturday at 8pm, with 3pm matinees on Wednesdays and Saturdays. A captioned performance is on 12 November at 8pm, a BSL performance on 13 November at 8pm and a relaxed performance on 18 November at 3pm. Tickets for Girls are on sale now.
