SATURDAY, JUNE 13, 2026
Bold Girls
Production Photo: Rebecca Jane Windsor
With recent occurrences in Belfast sending the city into an unsettling state of anxiety, a fearful standstill and helpless confusion, one senses that a local theatrical audience needs a lift, and that is precisely what Rona Munro's Bold Girls provides. For all the potential for outdoor troubles, a full house still attends the Lyric Theatre's Naughton Studio for the Centre Stage production of the play, directed by Michael Quinn, and the audience are rewarded with appealing visual and musical concepts, insightful writing, biting humour and four strong performances, all of which raise the play from the cosily familiar to the profoundly affecting.
The "bold girls" of Bold Girls are Marie (Caroline Curran), Cassie (Hannah Carnegie) and Nora (Mairead McKinley), a trio of women from early-to-mid 1990s Northern Ireland, battling to holding themselves together at home while the men in their lives are either absent or gone for good. Their boldness, apparently, is in how protectionist they are – of a barren kitchen and living room area illustrated in reds, browns, whites and beiges. This set, designed by Phil Jennings, is the antithesis of Lily Arnold's lively and detailed work for Consumed, and it's an approach that works like a charm – with increasingly little to protect, the characters' fragility is enhanced, and that leaves them even more ill-prepared for the latest unexpected turning point in their lives, the arrival of young stranger Deirdre (Annie McIlwaine).
Production Photo: Rebecca Jane Windsor
Whatever her motives or her character's origins, Deirdre is still key to Marie, Cassie and Nora broadening themselves beyond their insular sanctuary. Ceasing to be trapped in either a repetitive train of thought or an almost empty room. There is comfort in repetition, but there is also stagnancy, and this is what Quinn and the cast successfully highlight in Munro's script. Anyone who is ageing and feels left behind by the mere presence of a younger generation will relate to Nora, Marie and Cassie's urge to recapture some form of youthful vibrancy.
This leads us to an intriguing visual contrast. There is a moment where we see Deirdre closing herself off in the corner, preoccupied by the sound of Blind Date and You've Been Framed on the small television in the days when weekend television was still event viewing. Later, the titular Bold Girls try to be "bold" again by going out on the town. The pop cultural references here are simply bursting with nostalgia, from Cilla Black and Jeremy Beadle on the TV at home to the sound of Cyndi Lauper, Yazz, Kylie Minogue, Rick Astley, Madonna and more at the "disco". With so many eighties artists among those singers, it was apparent that a romanticising of "past lives" existed even then, and there's something both poignant and truthful about Deirdre appearing to be shield herself from outside pressures in a corner while Nora, Marie and Cassie want to relive similar pressures outdoors. Albeit with the benefit of wisdom they could never have had when they were Deirdre's age.
If a couple of the song choices are probably a bit too on-the-nose – by the second act, we not only hear "Should I Stay Or Should I Go?" but an increasingly prominent "Belfast Child" as the dramatic tension enhances – and at least one of the narrative twists near the end can be predicted in advance, the quality of the acting and the skill of Quinn's directing is such that this doesn't really matter. It's hard not to be moved by the growing drabness of Marie and Cassie's "going out" clothing - a clever touch from costumer Mya Dornan - and the rising wistfulness of both characters, which precedes a shockingly explosive outburst. They're part of a vast collection of emotions that keep the play going - it could be that the boldness of the Bold Girls is simply in staying alive, despite the temptation of Friday and Saturday night fever. It's a quiet tragedy, it's a mild comedy, it's a gentle tragicomedy – it's a welcome interlude for our times.
Simon Fallaha
Bold Girls concludes its sold out run at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast, on Sunday June 14. More information on the production can be found here.