by Diana Miranda

After its Royal Court debut in 2020, Miriam Battye’s Scenes with Girls returns with renewed energy, this time produced by T. Regina Theatre Company. Battye’s dramedy explores a female friendship showcased in all its chaotic yet beautiful glory. We might be used to either Mean Girls venom or sanitised sisterhood-power tales, but here, Battye offers something far more authentic: two young women who are sometimes gentle, sometimes petty, and always human.

The story centres on besties Lou and Tosh (Hannah Renar and Lyndsey Ruiz). Theirs is the kind of friendship that unfolds in an airtight microcosm of oversharing and amusement. Their interactions captures the naturalism of female banter, which Renar and Ruiz deliver with pitch-perfect ease – the inside jokes, the sidelong glances, the avalanche of unfinished sentences only best friends can decipher.

Emily Nelson’s hyper-realistic set conjures the cocoon-like mess of a girly, coming-of-age flat. The rug-covered stage overflows with everything from a pilates ball to stuffed animals, scattered clothes, books, and sweet wrappers. Upstage, a tucked-away toilet offers the only (somewhat) private nook in this otherwise shared world. From this small sanctuary, Lou and Tosh mock and dissect the tired tropes of normative romance – aka, dating. Their dismantling of gender expectations occasionally tips into arrogance as they judge their overly eager ex-flatmate Fran (Elinor Sumption), and her allegedly perfect engagement to the disdainfully nicknamed “Thingy”.

Though the play is word-heavy, it never loses pace. Dialogue whooshes by as Lou and Tosh debate, theorise, and tear apart every dream, date, and existential conundrum. Battye’s writing shows how theories can crumble under the weight of real emotion. While Lou keeps an active dating life, Tosh takes on a more intellectual approach, obsessing over finding the right words to verbalise their down-with-the-norms stance—a wry reminder that the stories we tell ourselves shape the way we live. Alex Stroming’s dynamic direction keeps the 80-minute production lively, unlocking surprising dimensions and emotional turns.

The growing gap between beliefs and behaviour all simmer into a climax that challenges the audience to sit with discomfort when Lou and Tosh’s sisterhood faces a crossroads. In doing so, it captures something real about connection. The story challenges audiences with a raw, honest portrayal of a friendship in flux.

There’s no easy takeaway, and that’s exactly the point. The play holds a mirror to the messy, flawed, loving personalities of its characters, and when their views clash, it leaves audiences free to decide where they stand. At its heart, Scenes with Girls is an authentic, deeply human piece that portrays how meaningful friendships can be as complex as romance, both in their joys and struggles. It’s an ode to the complicated love stories that unfold between friends — the ones we rarely get to see onstage.

Scenes with Girls runs through 3 May.

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