Girls & Boys

She meets him in an airport queue. A spark, a romance, a life begins. But as her career takes off, his starts to fall apart. From there, the story fractures. Written by Tony Award-winner Dennis Kelly (Matilda), Girls & Boys is a gripping one-woman play that moves from humour to heartbreak with razor-sharp precision. Performed by award-winning actress Janna Ramos-Violante and directed by Steven Stead, it is a moving and unflinching look at gender, ambition, and the quiet roots of violence.

An unnamed woman has a story to tell — about her husband, her children, her ambition, and the cost of becoming herself. What begins as a funny, engaging account of an unexpected love story becomes something else entirely: a riveting, devastating unraveling of a “normal life” built on fragile foundations.

She meets her future husband in an airport queue. An easyJet flight. A passing moment. A spark. A sweeping romance follows — intense, joyful, real. But as her career rises, his falters. Success becomes a fault line. The marriage fractures. Then, the unthinkable happens.

From Tony Award-winning playwright Dennis Kelly (Matilda, DNA, Orphans), Girls & Boys is a powerful and unflinching monologue that explores gender, violence, ambition, and the invisible pressures placed on women who dare to want more.

Written in a departure lounge, the play carries the momentum of travel — witty, raw, constantly shifting — and the deep stillness of loss. Kelly weaves humour and horror with surgical precision, examining the roots of male violence not as monsters in the dark, but as attitudes hiding in plain sight: in queues, in homes, in childhood games. Violence runs through the text like a tripwire through long grass — often invisible, until it detonates.

Originally performed by Janna Ramos-Violante, an award-winning actress known for her fearless emotional range, and directed by Steven Stead, a celebrated name in contemporary theatre, Girls & Boys had its premiere at the Salzburg State Theatre to  critical acclaim.

A play that grips you with its humour, shatters you with its truth, and lingers long after the lights fade.

Brilliantly constructed. Boldly performed. Utterly unforgettable.