The Young Vic Theatre has revealed the full cast for its forthcoming production of Girls, Theresa Ikoko’s acclaimed play about friendship, faith and survival, which will run at the venue’s intimate Maria Theatre from 22 October to 21 November 2026, with a press night on 27 October.
Hannah Akhalu, Tara Tijani and Sewa Zamba will take the three central roles in the production, which is directed by Ewa Dina — who makes her Young Vic debut following her success at the 2026 JMK Award, which she won for this very production.
The Play and Its Prize-Winning Pedigree
Written by British-Nigerian playwright Theresa Ikoko, Girls is set in Nigeria in 2014 and draws on the real-world horror of Boko Haram’s abduction of schoolgirls in Chibok. The play follows three teenage best friends — Tisana, Haleema and Ruhab — whose ordinary adolescent world of celebrity gossip and youthful preoccupations is shattered when they are kidnapped by militant insurgents. Trapped together and facing an uncertain fate, their friendship is tested as fear and religious difference threaten to fracture what little remains of their former lives.
The play has earned significant recognition since it was first staged. It won the Alfred Fagon Award in 2015 and the George Devine Award in 2016, and was a finalist for the Verity Bargate Award. Those accolades place it among a select group of plays that have made a powerful impact before reaching London’s major stages.
Akhalu, who has previously appeared in Cinderella at the Rose Theatre and Every Leaf a Hallelujah at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, takes on the role of Tisana. Tijani, known for her work at the Young Vic in Beauty or Beast? A series of interviews and at Shakespeare’s Globe in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, plays Haleema. Zamba, who has appeared in Jaja’s African Hair Braiding at the Lyric Hammersmith and Shakespeare with Dame Judi Dench at The Mill at Sonning, completes the trio as Ruhab.
A Directors’ Theatre Built on Emerging Talent
The Young Vic, founded in 1970 with a mission to make high-quality theatre accessible and affordable, has long positioned itself as a launchpad for emerging directorial talent. The theatre’s Maria Studio — a flexible, smaller-scale space within the main building — is particularly suited to intimate, character-driven work of the kind Girls represents.
Director Ewa Dina’s involvement underlines the production’s roots in that tradition. The JMK Award, administered by the JMK Trust and presented annually since 1997 in memory of the late director James Menzies-Kitchin, is one of British theatre’s most prestigious prizes for emerging directors. Past winners include Thea Sharrock and Bijan Sheibani, both of whom went on to significant careers in theatre and television.
Dina said of her cast:
