Sisterhood Under Siege: The Cast of ‘Girls’ at the Young Vic

‘I don’t think many people can pull on their own lived experiences,’ said Tara Tijani. ‘But I think we can use our lived experiences of connection and friendship and, you know, girlhood, and when you’ve had to really rely on someone, and betrayal.’

She is talking about Girls, Theresa Ikoko’s acclaimed drama opening at the Young Vic’s Maria Theatre on 22 October and running until 21 November. Directed by Ewa Dina—winner of the 2026 JMK Award—the play takes us back to northern Nigeria in 2014. Three teenagers, Tisana (Hannah Akhalu), Haleema (Tijani), and Ruhab (Sewa Zamba), are suddenly snatched by militant insurgents and thrown into an uncertain, terrifying limbo.

Before the abduction, they were just ordinary schoolgirls trading notes on boys, obsessing over pop culture, and trying to dodge carbs. Captured, they have only one another. Winner of both the Alfred Fagon and George Devine awards, Ikoko’s play sidesteps the detached tone of breaking news bulletins to explore how young people actually behave when their world collapses.

Three Ways to Survive

When horrors like this hit the evening news, the people caught up in them are too often lumped together as a single, helpless mass. Ikoko’s writing pulls in the opposite direction, giving each girl an individual voice and an entirely distinct way of coping.

‘I don’t think many people can pull on their own lived experiences,’ said Tara Tijani. ‘But I think we can use our lived experiences of connection and friendship and, you know, girlhood, and when you’ve had to really rely on someone, and betrayal.’

‘Theresa, in her writing, has already done a good job in making sure that the three characters are quite distinct in their ways of coping,’ explained Zamba, who recently appeared in Jaja’s African Hair Braiding at the Lyric Hammersmith.

‘The three of us, individually, have our own ways as the characters to get through what’s going on,’ said Zamba. ‘One is more so like on the fence, the bridge between the two worlds: the life that they lived before, and then fully jumping in to this new life. And one who stays true to what they know and their refusal to, for lack of a better word, fully accept or integrate into the circumstances that they find themselves in. And one that’s just completely focused on getting out and doesn’t even want to—will do what they can to acclimatise to the situation, but is focused on getting out as soon as possible.’

That split stops the drama from becoming a simplistic portrait of victimhood. Instead, it turns the spotlight onto human nature itself.

‘Are you flight? Are you fight, flight, or freeze? Like, that’s been some buzzwords that have often been in our rehearsal room,’ said Tijani. ‘At different moments you’re going to connect with a different character, and you’ll be like, “Oh, I’m definitely more like Tisana at this point. Yeah, I would have done what she did.” Or, “No, no, I would have done what Ruhab did, or Haleema did.” But then you also, if you were in the situation, you just don’t know what you would have done.’

Tough Love and Sibling Bonds

While the play is billed as an exploration of female friendship, the actors quickly discovered that captivity changes the rules of engagement. After all, you can choose your friends, but you cannot choose who shares your cell.

‘In terms of what the play has to say about female friendship, I think it comes to the topic from like from a sense of sisterhood more so, because yes, they’re friends, but they find themselves in this like serious situation in which they have only themselves to depend on,’ said Zamba.

‘So I would even say it’s more of a sisterhood than a friendship, although they’re not related by blood,’ Zamba added. ‘The type of conversations they have, how they interact with each other, is quite sibling-like, which is lovely, because sometimes you have to consider how you say things to people, whether that be your friends, whether that be your siblings, and it’s like it can come from a place of tough love. And because you know this person so well, and as we’ve said, the three of them are so different, so the way you would approach a topic to Tisana might be different to the way you approach Ruhab about the same thing.’

Tackling that kind of emotional pressure day after day is no small task. The Young Vic has enlisted Samantha Adams as production dramatherapist, but the cast have also built their own quiet rituals of mutual care.

‘Each of us is carrying the story with such care, which takes a lot of, you know, brain power, um, because we’re being very considerate of the topic and the girls, and the fact that, um, though it’s not necessarily accurate to what might have happened bar by bar, it’s inspired by a true event, and honouring that, which is a tough job,’ said Akhalu. ‘Moments where we can give each other a thumbs up or a hug or a smile, um, we’ve definitely been doing, which has been very, very helpful.’

Finding the Funny Side

Yet for all its harrowing context, Girls is far from a two-hour parade of misery. Ikoko understands that teenagers remain teenagers, even in a compound, and that humour is often the first line of defence against terror.

‘I think the comic relief has been like, um, has been helpful in terms of like technically to balance out the the quite, um, the more like serious and darker moments, but it also like reminds us that they they are they are still children, they were still children, and there’s only so much that they can take so seriously,’ said Akhalu. ‘They shouldn’t be in this situation, but what would literally like teenage girls do in a situation? Sometimes it’s to poke fun and at like the the craziness of it.’

Steering this tricky balance is director Ewa Dina, making her debut on the Young Vic stage. Her background as a performer has proved invaluable in the rehearsal room, keeping the work anchored in physical instinct rather than abstract theory.

***Girls – Directed by Ewa Dina – Rehearsal Photography 2.10.26-23*** – ***Image by Feruzi Afewerki-Abraha***

‘Because Ewa also has an acting background as well, I think that really helps in terms of how she directs,’ said Akhalu. ‘She gets up, and she shows, and she demonstrates, and um there’s, I feel like a real clarity in that, and because she has a strong vision of what this should feel like especially, not necessarily just look like, and that’s um that’s very helpful.’

For Tijani, seeing how the play balances those lighter moments with raw tension placed Ikoko’s text squarely within the wider dramatic tradition.

‘It’s just those universal human emotions and themes that are in this play, that’s in, you know, every Shakespeare play, every Chekhov, every whatever,’ said Tijani.

The Problem with Hashtags

Inevitably, spending weeks inside the world of the play has forced the trio to reflect on how quickly Western attention moves on from foreign tragedies.

‘So I would even say it’s more of a sisterhood than a friendship, although they’re not related by blood,’ Zamba added. ‘The type of conversations they have, how they interact with each other, is quite sibling-like, which is lovely, because sometimes you have to consider how you say things to people, whether that be your friends, whether that be your siblings, and it’s like it can come from a place of tough love.

When the Chibok schoolgirls were taken in 2014, the story spawned a global social media campaign, with celebrities and politicians brandishing placards. Then various algorithms swept attention onwards and elsewhere.

‘It’s made me think a lot about the news cycle, and when something’s trending or being a viral moment, you know, you’re so on it, and you repost, and you retweet, and you share things, and then I guess we, you know, as one does, you move on with your life, but you forget that this thing is still happening,’ said Tijani. ‘When we’ve been doing research on the topic, you go, “Oh, that was just one, the 2014 kidnapping of the Chibok girls, that was just one incident.” You know, there were kidnappings this year, and it’s still been going on.’

It is an uncomfortable truth, and one the company hopes will follow audiences out through the foyer and into the street.

‘Over the last couple of weeks we have grown with the story, we have grown with the characters, and we have grown with each other,’ said Zamba. ‘By nature, yes, we will be stepping onto the stage as newly informed people. We carry now a better understanding of the story and a better understanding of the job that has to be done to ensure that the audience leaves the theatre with um the desire to learn more about these girls and to consider um their own position in the story of these girls.’

When the final curtain falls on 21 November, the cast will have to shake off the heavy atmosphere of the Maria Theatre and return to real life. For Akhalu, that transition is about practical self-care—and remembering the humanity at the centre of the work.

‘Go back into your world, listen to your music, watch your shows, see your friends, but then also hold onto, like the the beautiful parts of your character as well, the the fun, the care, the joy, the jokes, and take that into the world with you,’ said Akhalu.

Featured Image: Girls – Directed by Ewa Dina – Rehearsal Photography 2.10.26-23 – Image by Feruzi Afewerki-Abraha