GIRLS and Dolls will run at the SSE Arena is running on Saturday, September 22, at the SSE Arena in Belfast
It was penned by Derry-born writer Lisa McGee long before Derry Girls became a household hit and an award winning Channel 4 comedy.
It will feature one of the stars Jamie-Lee O’Donnell, who plays Michelle Mallon.
The debut play from Lisa is said to have inspired the hit Channel 4 series.
Set in Derry in the 1980s, it follows friends Emma and Clare as they grow up and also stars The Young Offenders actor Jennifer Barry.
Director Gerard McCabe said: “The show is all about friendships you make when you are younger, before you move to secondary school.
2It is how those friendships change and asks the question, ‘Can best friends stay as best friends as they grow up’.
“There is a big thing that happens, a new girl moves in and it changes things.
“It is hilarious, Lisa McGee’s writing is just fantastic and the characters, some you may recognise from Derry Girls, this is where some of those characters evolved from.”
Gerard said he hoped audiences would fall in love with the characters and step away from the boxsets for a night and enjoy some live theatre.
“It is like watching Derry Girls live,” he said.
Writer Lisa McGee said: “Girls and Dolls tells the story of two ten year old girls, Emma and Clare, who meet on an unusually hot Summers day in the 1980’s. It will be a brief friendship, but one which will cast a shadow over them for the rest of their lives.
“Set in Derry, in the same colourful neighbourhood that my sitcom Derry Girls takes place, Emma and Clare guide us through their world, it’s larger than life characters and the sectarian tension they don’t fully understand.
“When I wrote Girls and Dolls back in 2006, I wanted to write about memory, about how two people may view the same event completely differently, and to ask the question, can we ever really escape our past? As Emma and Clare tell the story of that summer, they struggle to understand what they did, what they became, and how they were judged.
“I’m very excited about this new production. Jamie -Lee and Jennifer are huge talents and the Millennium Forum are to be applauded for such stellar casting. I can’t wait to see them in action.”
This brand new production by Millennium Forum Productions and Sodabread Theatre Company performs at Belfast’s SSE Arena this weekend as part of an Irish Tour.
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