SHE THREADED DANGEROUSLY

By Diana Simmonds

September 20 2025

SHE THREADED DANGEROUSLY, Senseless Productions, Sydney Fringe and the Old Fitz, 18-27 September 2025. Photography by Karla Elbourne

Fifteen-sixteen is a dangerous age for a girl. Legally and in many other ways, she’s still a child; in others, she’s frighteningly adult. Frightening to herself and, most probably, to her mother. Definitely to those who love her or are charged with caring for her.

Women who remember that perilous time will be mostly appalled and at times mortified and amused by the four school friends of She Threaded Dangerously. Everyone else will be either bemused or doubly appalled as they watch Mel (Claudia Elbourne), Sophie (Larissa Turton), Luna (Karrine Kanaan), and Natalie (Alyssa Peters) negotiate the hazardous shoals of their everyday.

At a time in their lives when they are least aware of the daily abyss in front of them, teenage girls are likely to be at their boldest and most rebellious. It’s an explosive situation, and anyone who gets through it relatively unscathed has a dreadfully overworked guardian angel.

The main factor in the girls’ lives to keep guardian angels up at night is boys/men, and the species is represented here by Man 1 (Michael Yore), Man 2/Boy 1 (Leon Walshe), and Boy 2 (Hamish Alexander). Between them, they typify the most commonly encountered penis-bearers: the gawky incel, the likely lad, the decent bloke, and the charming predator.

In a sharply observed, hair-raisingly accurate script by Emma Wright and Simon Thomson, all of young life is portrayed in vivid colour in about 70 minutes. As is de rigueur in a mob of besties, there is conflict, jealousy, and cruelty, as well as affection and compassion. What’s common among the girls is the combination of smarts and naivety that propels them through this fraught phase of their lives.

It’s played out on an attractive set by Laila McCarthy of a tree, park benches, and a few chairs to suggest place, with interrelated lighting states by Luna Ng. Direction by Claudia Elbourne draws performances from the company that are subtle and true to life. (She also took on the role of Mel at short notice after a TV job understandably snaffled an actor, and her work in both roles is impressive.)

What stays in the mind long after the 70 minutes are over is the unflinching honesty of the stories: the girl who preys on an inexperienced sports coach after he rebuffs her crush is as alarmingly true as the smooth-talking groomer of the girl who thinks she’s got it all worked out. And most every other youth trap in between is dragged kicking and screaming into the light.

If, when not chuckling at the alternating wit and crassness of typically horrid schoolgirls, your stomach doesn’t churn for your younger self or your daughter, you’re either deluded, oblivious, or in denial.

Whether you are one, have been one, or have one of your own, this is an exploration and explanation of teenage-girlhood articulated with remarkable clarity and heart. Compelling, scary, droll, and ugly-beautiful.