The documentary play Girls is based on the testimonies and stories of women from three different generations: performers in their thirties, their mothers in their sixties, and their grandmothers in their eighties. Following the play Bakice (Grannies, 2020), Girls are the second collaboration between Ljubljana-based director Tjaša Črnigoj and Rijeka-based Igralke Collective.

This time, the authors explore themes of growing up, first sexual experiences, and sex education across generations of women. They are interested in what “losing virginity” meant to different generations, how much they feared unwanted pregnancy, and what kind of support they had in discovering their sexuality. Through this intimate archeology of family histories the authors and performers encounter shame, pleasure, and silence, while inviting the audience to openly discuss things we often leave unspoken.

Girls portray the changing times and sociopolitical systems through personal stories of women. Safe abortion seems less and less accessible in Croatia today, and the policies threatening women’s reproductive and sexual rights are on the rise in many other places as well. Where are we headed? Will the upbringing of future generations increasingly resemble that of our grandmothers?

In addition to conversations with grandmothers and mothers, the authors also found inspiration in workshops with present-day teenage girls growing up in Rijeka.

Girls is thematically linked to the lecture-performance Sex Education II: Fight, which reconstructs the efforts for women’s reproductive rights in Yugoslavia. Together, they form a diptych.

The performance is not recommended for audiences under the age of 14.