Arcola theatre, London
Georgie Henley delivers a tour de force performance as a teenager caught in the grip of PTSD in Philip Ridley’s comic and macabre monologue

Philip Ridley’s typically intense and adrenalised monologue first premiered online during the Covid pandemic, and seems very much of that time, with its singular performance and bare rectangle of stage. It is well worth reviving now though, not only for the urgency of its story, about a teenager who becomes a target of gang violence, but for its central hair-raising performance.

Georgie Henley plays Toni, a seemingly chirpy young woman from east London who is in fact caught in the grip of PTSD and terrifying flashbacks. She narrates the events that have led her here, from a first date – and kiss – with a boy called Michael, to a vicious attack on the street which leaves Michael dead and Toni fearing for her life.