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The Girls of Slender Means

By: Muriel Spark

Production image of the Girls of Slender Means showing a woman talking an old fashioned phone. She is wearing round glasse, a brown and white spotted blouse and black jacket
Image by Mark Marnie

The Girls of Slender Means

By: Muriel Spark

Adapted by: Judith Adam

Directed by: Muriel Romanes

Co-produced by: Stellar Quines & Assembly Theatre

Poised on the edge of a defining moment in 1945, a community of young women in bomb-damaged London is living in extraordinary and momentous times.

They swap chocolates for ice cream, count calories, quarrel and reconcile and work on their poise. About sex and the availability of it, money and the lack of it, The Girls of Slender Means is as chilling as an Arctic winter, slashing the face of romantic relationships like flying glass.

The Girls of Slender Means was a co-produciton with Assembly Theatre, Edinburgh and played there during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2009.

"the performances are faultless... savagely brilliant"

by Metro

"a gallery of outstanding performances"

by Whatsonstage.com

Cast

  • Romana Abercromby

    Performer

  • Maureen Beattie

    Performer

  • Candida Benson

    Performer

  • Teresa Churcher

    Performer

  • Melody Grove

    Performer

  • Denise Hoey

    Performer

  • Mary Keegan

    Performer

  • Clare Lawrence Moody

    Performer

  • Jamie Lee

    Performer

  • Pauline Lockhart

    Performer

  • Kevin McGonagle

    Performer

  • Barnaby Power

    Performer

Creative Team

  • Muriel Spark

    Writer

  • Judith Adams

    Adaptor

  • Muriel Romanes

    Director

  • Merle Hansel

    Set and Costume Design

  • Finn Ross

    Video Design

  • Natasha Chivers

    Lighting Design

  • Philip Pinsky

    Sound Design

  • Janice Parker

    Choreography

About The Show

The Girls of Slender Means, adapted for the stage by Judith Adams in a commission from Stellar Quines, is a celebration of Muriel Spark’s literary spirit and genius.  The play was nominated for Best Ensemble, Stage Awards for Acting Excellence 2009. The inspiration to stage The Girls of Slender Means was born out of the success of a 2003 Royal Lyceum Theatre production of Spark’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, also directed by Muriel Romanes. Romanes said: ‘I wanted to revisit other Muriel Spark works to see if it was possible to recreate on stage the same theatrical and nostalgic impact of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie in a way that would thrill audiences with the unexpected. The Girls of Slender Means seemed to fit perfectly. In 1945 there was a sense of real austerity and life was a very different struggle from that which we experience today. People were larger than life, idealistic, brave and opinionated. There was no time to lose and so people thought, spoke and acted accordingly. We live in a world now that doesn’t cultivate eccentrics; we are the poorer for this.’

Tour History