Review: Scenes With Girls
Miriam Battye ‘s Scenes with Girls is a play of 20+ episodes, featuring three female actors and one very messy flat. Critical of ‘the narrative’ of seeking someone to settle down with, Lou (Hannah Ward) chatters incessantly about recent conquests, while the virtually housebound Tosh (Jasmine Prasser) keeps trying to change the subject. Tosh is much more interested in exploring what dreams might have meant (including referencing Anne Boleyn beheading and finding a bunch of flowers), feminist discourse, or talking about anything other than Lou’s sex life. But this somewhat unlikely couple of friends clearly enjoy partying together and their time in their flat. Their closeness is brought into sharp relief when Lou’s former flatmate Fran (Georgina Sawyer) visits, and we see how the now ‘outsider’ is uncomfortable when she is not party to the inside jokes and narratives.
The world outside the flat seeps into the relationship—most poignantly with the visits of Fran, but also with moments where the flatmates move into the garden or surrounding streets, including when Tosh finds ‘love.’ However, most of the Scenes With Girls dialogue is placed within the walls of their rental. Laurent Milton‘s set captures the raw, dishevelled, Tracey Emin My Bed design style—complete with grungy pink bathroom fixtures. But I would have preferred a much smaller flat interior, to help build the intensity of the close relationship of the central characters.
Hannah Ward (Lou, and Choreographer) is compelling as the conquest-obsessed Lou, and the moments of the ‘Jane Fonda’ style workout are somewhat amusing. Jasmine Prasser (Tosh, and co-producer) has a difficult role to play, and the bathroom moments of frustration and mental health decline are well-acted. And Georgina Sawyer (Fran, and co-producer) is great as the pitiful ‘outsider’ Fran, ensuring we all felt more than a little sad when she finally leaves.
Scenes with Girls might aim to remind us that friendships deserve as much effort as romantic relationships. But I am not sure it models what being a good friend is all about, as these girls are relentless in their cruel comments, shout most of their emotions, and appear uncaring when often more interested in screen-time and reading their latest messages. I found the ending unsatisfying, and even confusing.
Playwright Miriam Battye’s Scenes with Girls is a challenging work. Director Ruby Sanders has worked hard to interpret this show for a Brisbane audience, but I would like to have seen this team of cast and creatives apply themselves to a different work. Messy, complicated, brash and uncertain might be suitable descriptions of the all-female flat share home that features in the show, but can equally be applied to the play itself.
Congratulations to Queensland Theatre Company (QTC) for creating a route for groups such as Salad Days Collective to earn invaluable experience and exposure—as the impressive QTC DOOR 3 program provides an important entry-point for Queensland-based theatre collectives to stage independent theatre works. And hats off to the Salad Days Collective team for their hard work to bring Scenes with Girls to the QTC Diane Cilento stage; I just wish they had selected a different play to devote their energies and talents to.
Picture: Promotional image for Scenes With Girls (NOT a Creative Futures Photography image).
Audience information: Scenes With Girls, Diane Cilento Studio, 78 Montague Rd, South Brisbane (4-19 September 2026). Tickets $36-$40 (plus transaction fee of $5). 100 minutes, with no interval. Recommended 18+ as this production contains adult themes, coarse language, strong sexual references, depictions of emotional manipulation and references to violent themes, including mention of beheading, and references to sexual assault. It also includes strobe effects, theatrical haze or smoke, herbal or e-cigarettes, moments of complete blackout, and loud music or sound effects.
The reviewer attended the 12 September 2026, 7:30pm performance.
Presented by Salad Days Collective
Additional credits: Uncredited male actor (non-speaking role), Noah Milne (Lighting Designer), Tommi Civili (Sound Designer), Jasmine Prasser and Georgina Sawyer (Co Producers), Amelia Slatter (Producer), Josh Millers (Set Builder), Jess Johnson (Stage Manager & Production Coordinator), Gina Greer (Assistant Stage Manager), Cutter Harris ( Production Assistant), and Rosalind Williams (Voice Coach). Play by Arrangement with ORiGiN™ Theatrical on behalf of Nick Hern Books. The production credits note that ‘this work of Independent Theatre is created by professional Actors, Creatives, and Stage Management, all of whom donate their time and expertise for a share of ticket sales.’ DOOR 3 is proudly supported by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body, and the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland.