Sarah Meacham, Michelle Ny and Cece Peters in The Wolves. Photo: Brett Boardman
Nine teenage girls from different backgrounds make up the indoor soccer team that is The Wolves. In and out of their training sessions, they argue, they squabble, they are supportive and they are bitchy. Body image and fitness are important. Their conversation ranges from the trivial to the consequential, from Tampax to global warfare. They are young and still forming, and as long as their team keeps winning, they’ll stick together.
But injuries occur, and rivalries turn sour and then something happens that changes the game completely.
Last year, The Wolves was named by The New York Times as one of the top 25 American plays of the past 25 years, and it’s easy to see why. It comes to Belvoir after a sell-out season at the Old Fitz in 2017. It’s a play about young women, by young women, who are operating on their own terms. It’s energetic and it’s immediate, bright and raw. There’s a captain, a rebel, an innocent, a new recruit, a common enemy. It’s sport and it’s a battlefield. It’s life and the girls’ concerns are real.
The Wolves: Michelle Ny, Nikita Waldren, Brenna Harding, Sarah Meahcam, Nadia Zwecker, Cece Peters, Emma Harvie, Sofia Nolan, Chika Ikogwe. Photo: Brett Boardman
Jess Arthur directs with precision and Brenna Harding, Emma Harvie, Chika Ikogwe, Renne Lim, Sarah Meacham, Sofia Nolan, Michelle Ny, Cece Peters, Nikita Waldron and Nadia Zwecker are the energetic cast (a lot of footballs fly around these training sessions, a lot of exercise takes place between and during the sharp and quick dialogue) and they’re all great, as well as match-fit! It’s not often you see a Soccer Coach named in the production credits but Mandela Mathia is that man. The play is set in Middle America, but it could be anywhere, and Maya Keys’ set design, an AstroTurf field enclosed by nets, is simple and effective. We the audience are very much on the outside of that net, looking in.
We live in a world where increasingly political parties and leaders are in the game solely for themselves. The Wolves are different, they’re a team. It’s a refreshing change.
The Wolves, by Sarah DeLappe, Red Line Productions plays at Upstairs Theatre, Belvoir, until March 3.
