MOONFACE

★★

theatre review (edinburgh) | Read in About 2 minutes

By Alice Saville

Published 16 Aug 2016

This is a story of being a teenager, and the weird little worlds that female friends make with each other. And it does teenagerdom really well, opening with a hilarious forensic analysis of 16-year-old Kathy's first sexual encounter. Unfortunately, it's also a story about becoming a grown up – and that's where young company Guttersnipe Theatre's piece flounders.

Teenage friends Sara and Kathy share everything, imagining a future where they live together in a flat with wooden floors and even a lava lamp. Eight years in the future, their lives aren't quite what they'd hoped. Their flat is a mess, Kathy is constantly flitting from bad boyfriend to bad boyfriend, and Sara is lonely, and tired of her dull office job. Their story is intercut with that of Josie, aged 16: a maniacally self-possessed girl who obsesses over revision and getting the perfect spot in the library as much as she does boys.

Molly McGeachin and Grace Church spark off each other, in naturalistic performances that shift from hysterical laughter to moments of total bleakness. And Lucy Managan performs her monologue with wit and constant frustration at the unseen adults who define every inch of her life.

But these two strands barely speak to each other. They happen 24 years apart, but Guttersnipe Theatre ignore the huge social changes those years span. And they fall prey to the old theatrical trope that every pregnancy test taken after a one-night stand has to be positive, too. This clunky story feels naive, next to the maturity of the performances that fill it – unlike these teenage friends, it never grows up.