Theresa Ikoko's award-winning comedy about three schoolgirls taken by an armed group returns in the Young Vic's Maria Theatre this autumn.
Ewa Dina, winner of the 2026 JMK Award, directs Theresa Ikoko’s Girls in the Young Vic’s Maria Theatre in Waterloo, from Thursday 22 October to Saturday 21 November 2026. It is her Young Vic debut.
Ikoko set the play in Nigeria in 2014. Three schoolgirls are taken from their school by an armed group, with only each other to hold onto.
She wrote it as a comedy: three teenagers arguing about boys, hair and each other, inside a situation the audience already knows from the news. The play refuses to turn the girls into a cause.
It won the Alfred Fagon Award for best new play in 2015 and the George Devine Award for most promising playwright in 2016. It was also a finalist for the Verity Bargate Award.
Ikoko had spent years working with young people before she wrote it. She has since written for film, earning a BAFTA nomination for Rocks.
The Maria is the Young Vic’s small room, seating around 150, close enough that three actors talking is the entire event. It plays beside Thelma & Louise next door for most of its run.