Girls Like That: Wharf Youth Theatre Group in Bold Reality-Driven Drama

As part of our ongoing series exploring youths in our area doing good, to backwash this current trend by local media to sensationalise only the wayward minority for clickbait, I wanted to draw your attention to the final performance on the summer season programme at the fabulous Wharf Theatre in Devizes, “Girls Like That.”

Under the direction of Lou Cox, who is finishing her masters degree in Theatre from Guildford School of Acting, graduated Bath Spa University with a BA(Hons) in performing arts and has a ACTL teaching diploma from Trinity College London, this is a performance by the Youth Wharf Theatre’s senior acting company of teenagers aged between ten and fourteen.

What I think is really great about this is they don’t mention the Youth Theatre element on their website, and it stands as Wharf Theatre production as much as any other. Nothing is condescending here because this is not the sort of play you might be expecting. Speaking to Lou, she joked, “they could’ve done James & The Giant Peach, or something like that, but we wanted something they could relate to!”

Girls Like That is written by Canadian-British playwright Evan Placey and was named Best Play for Young Audiences at the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Awards 2015. A phenomenal, contemporary play, depicting the social pressures, digital impact, and gender double standards; I’ve read this and it is intelligently gritty, reality-driven stuff. Exploring the pressures on young people today in the wake of advancing technology, the synopsis being protagonist, Scarlett, finds her naked photograph going viral and becomes the centre of attention for all the wrong reasons. But while rumours run wild and everyone forms an opinion, Scarlett just stays silent.

You can also help the youth group by voting for this performance at this TicketSource Community Event. Please vote HERE.

The Youth programme at the Wharf has been running for just under two years now, this play will really show its worth, giving young people in our area something to inspire them, something they can relate to, as this is not so uncommon today, as well as a stark warning to take care when online. It is running from July 20th to 22nd, tickets are just £10-14, available now. “The girls in the group have been working really hard towards this,” Lou explained.

A freelance drama teacher at various schools in the area and a LAMDA examiner, Lou Cox has recently started exciting projects with Banardos adoption agency, using drama as a training tool for adoptive parents and a refugee charity in Swindon. She is notable for singing professionally at Glastonbury festival and stand-up comedy, and should you want a taste of the latter, you can find her one-woman not for the faint-hearted self-penned and performed show, “Having a Baby and the S**t They Don’t Tell You,” at The Wharf on May 26th and 27th.

This comedic and brutally honest show takes the audience on an emotional and, at times, highly entertaining rollercoaster. From morning sickness to hypno-birthing classes to labour, you won’t find this stuff in the pregnancy books! No holds barred; get ready for a whirlwind of witty anecdotes and graphic storytelling with an ending no mother could ever imagine…. (editor’s note: of course, none of this is as bad as man-flu!)