The Wolves follows a team of teenage girls as they run through warm-ups, as well as the week's gossip, ahead of their weekly indoor soccer games.
Phoebe Turnbull directs this indie offering at Newcastle Theatre Company and has managed to deliver some of the freshest theatre in recent memory.
From the get-go, the audience is partitioned from the actors by a soccer net hung across the proscenium, and you just can't help but imagine yourself being in a camping chair on the sidelines, watching on from a slightly obstructed, but perfectly realistic, point of view.
The dialogue is constant and, most of all, concurrent, with thoughts barely ending in one corner of the action before a side conversation takes precedence for a moment.
Sarah DeLappe's intricate script covers everything from ski trips, boys, the ethics of forgiving participants in genocide, and whether scouts are there to watch the game, and it never loses your interest.
This proverbial juice, however, does dry up somewhat in the last third when the team suffers a tragedy, and the script recants its gimmick and becomes a little run of the mill as a drama, but it is objectively a very compelling ride up until this point.
Standing out most is Xanthie Pagac, the team's feisty striker, and the cast member who is considerably the most commanding of the bunch, entering on big laugh lines with incredible energy. Evie Laurence also dazzles as the perfect airhead to complement and enable some of the more intense personalities on the team. Pagac and Laurence also contributed the choreography, which comprises everything from lunges across the pitch to elaborate soccer drills in pairs and as a team.
Additionally, dance interludes to the likes of Doja Cat and Lizzo cleanse the palate, while also reminding us of the lesson at its core: the power of the teenage girl.
The Wolves runs until September 17
WHAT DO YOU THINK? We've made it a whole lot easier for you to have your say. Our new comment platform requires only one log-in to access articles and to join the discussion on the Newcastle Herald website. Find out how to register so you can enjoy civil, friendly and engaging discussions. Sign up for a subscription here.
