NOTE: This review will not contain spoilers

Sometimes the arts are great because they showcase a myriad of talents that could have easily gone unearthed. Sometimes they resonate with you, putting into words all the things you sort of knew but never had the vocabulary to express. And sometimes, they offer a fresh perspective, something that you never even considered before because, why would you? You’re just some dude with a reviewer blog.

This show does all of the above.

Midnight Confessions is a returning show by Heartbreaker Productions, an all-wāhine company that focuses on a collaborative creativity that shows in every single scene. Together, these four talents toe the lines of absurdity, chaos and heartfulness through various scenes about different girls of different ages.

The premise is easy to get on board with. Most scenes and stories take place in the ephemeral plane of various fleeting slumber parties. The production design by Rebekah de Roo is a great complement to the stories, with props and pillows hidden around the stage for the performers to access easily. They’re always in the right place at the right time, and they never feel lost. That warm feeling of a pillow fort is perfectly captured by the draping sheets and scattered blankets.

Rather than a single, over-arching plot, the show lends itself to a more sketch-based format which allows the cast to tell more varied stories from different eras of girlhood. The scenes are structured around four Confessions, each one monologued by a different member of the cast, supported by the remainder who sit with the audience to support them.

You can see from the get-go how much these four support each other. When we walk into the Stage at BATS Theatre, we’re not so much greeted by, but rather offered a glimpse into the upbeat energy that carries throughout the show. The performers are playing around, doing bits that are barely audible, but are specifically for them. It’s not often that I find myself grinning at the warm-up exercises of a show, but there’s just so much joy in the way they keep each other propped up.

That support is unwavering. These performers have spent years together, building the kind of chemistry that only comes from wholly trusting one another and allowing themselves to be trusted. There’s always a strong connection between them, whether it’s sly eye contact for timing purposes, or simply moving a microphone wire so it gets out of the way faster.

The scenes themselves are great, and varied in their tone and length. Some are cheeky, chaotic bits that involve multiple hilarious disguises, whereas others are meaty, all-too-relatable commentaries on social structures and how they can affect us when we’re at our emotional worst. What I love about these is that they all come from a place of true heart. Whether it’s just meant to be ‘girls having fun’ or ‘girls having existential crises about comparison to one another’, the show always feels authentic and sincere.

This is all in part to the performers also being the writers on this show.

Abby Lyons excels at being ‘the responsible one’, actively solving problems with sheer emotional gravitas. The concern she holds in each of her characters is so endearing, even when chucking a menstrual cup onto the stage. She holds the space whenever she’s on, and commands the authoritative respect of everyone in the audience.

In contrast, Alia Marshall is a hilarious delight whose impeccable comedic timing results in some of the night’s biggest laughs. That’s not to say she doesn’t have insanely strong acting chops. My favourite scene of the night is her Fleabagging her way in and out of a gut-wrenching scene that has me internally screaming at how real it is.

If there were any doors on the set, Anna Barker would be kicking them down with her consistently powerful entrances. She always seems to come on with this ‘and what?’ attitude, paired with a goblin-esque facial expression that tells us that she’s here to play. It’s hard not to crack up when she steals a glance at the audience.

Finally, we have Mia Oudes, whose range is on full display here. Whether she’s playing off her fellow performers or monologuing about how boys speak a completely different language (a manguage, if you will), she’s always got this emotional depth that draws you in, no matter what sort of character she’s playing.

And that’s what makes this show so great, the wide range of female experiences that are so truthful. That’s why the show is done sketch-style, because the message isn’t ‘this is what girls go through’, it’s simply ‘girls go through a lot’. The twenty-plus characters in this show don’t even come close to encompassing the entirety of the girlhood experience and it’s not trying to. There is no one singular ‘girl’ experience, as easy as that would be for us guys to compartmentalise and move on from.

The key takeaway from this show that I got, as a man, is that we need to listen to wāhine. That’s all. It’s such a small thing but it’s the bare minimum we owe to the women and girls in our lives. I know I’ve failed in this regard many times in my life, and this is a reminder for us to do better.

Midnight Confessions is a fantastic showcase of wāhine talent and a commentary on girlhood that everyone needs to hear. It’s authentic and real, drawing on the performers’ personal experience for an experience that leaves you wanting more scenes, and more stories. It’s a strong message that has lingered with me to the extent that I don’t feel comfortable claiming I’m equipped to be doing this review.

So let’s switch it up.

If the show has taught me anything, it’s that I need to amplify women’s voices too, so here are the words of fellow theatre connoisseur, Bethany Miller:

“I loved the show! It was so nostalgic and genuinely made me miss girlhood and strong female friendship from different periods of my life. I related to heaps of the pop culture references, despite being a touch older than the creators and so many of the themes were timeless. I desperately reached to sing out loud to the opening track.”

Bethany Miller

Preach.

Midnight Confessions is running from 28th to the 31st of August at BATS Theatre. Tickets available from the BATS Theatre website.

Disclosure: As a somewhat active member of the Wellington performing arts community, I may be quite familiar with a number of the performers in this show.
Having said that, I am not a liar, and there is zero bias in my reviews, shut up.

Also, tickets were provided to me for free by the production. Literally changes nothing, though.