Friday Night Love Poem, the acclaimed play from female-led Crossline Theatre, is now streaming for a limited season via The Space Arts Centre, on-demand until Saturday 22 January 2022, including a watch-party and post-show Q&A with the creatives on Friday 21 January. Time to get booking!
“Crossline Theatre manages to bring something fresh to the topic of female sexual experience” – ★★★★ Theatre T
Friday Night Love Poem
Friday Night Love Poem, written by Natalia Knowlton, is a funny, cringey and heartfelt throwback to the female teenage experience, from the early noughties to today. Three coming-of-age stories, one epic play about the journey to embracing female pleasure.
On a brightly coloured stage, we see three girls grow into women: Cecilia is ready to lose her virginity on Valentine’s Day, Kate is terrified on her wedding night, and Mia wants to be every boy’s fantasy. All three young women face inner and outer turmoil as they navigate sexual relationships for the first time.
Friday Night Love Poem stars Gina Ruysen (as Kate), Vanessa Labrie (Paula), Amanda Vilanova (Sarah), Kara Chamberlain (Cecilia), and Jordan Daley (Mia). The production is directed by Mariana Aristizábal, with set and costume design by Malena Arcucci, sound design by Laura Iredale and film production by Aydan Wilde.
London-based Chilean-Canadian playwright Natalia Knowlton said:
“I wrote Friday Night Love Poem in response to society’s obsession with preaching about purity whilst simultaneously sexualising teenage girls. Having grown up in the 00’s surrounded by images of oversexualised virginal pop stars (eg Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson), I think this has set up young women for failure.”
The ripple effect of this era is still felt today, with girls and young women facing an increasingly brutal sexual landscape through social media and porn culture. There is no better time to reflect on how we teach young people about pleasure, respect, and consent.
Full of noughties nostalgia, Friday Night Love Poem highlights the impact that the decade’s overt misogyny and over-sexualisation of purity has had on Millennial and Gen Z women. This urgent new play explores the themes of young love, sexual discovery, coming out, peer pressure and self-love.
Show trailer
Show photos
Photography by Matthew Thomas.
About Crossline Theatre
Crossline Theatre
Crossline Theatre is a female-led company based in London, run by Canadian artistic directors Kara Chamberlain and Natalia Knowlton. They create and produce feminist work that inspires discussion, education, and action. Their first show in the UK Cream Pie (★★★★), blended verbatim text with physical comedy, providing a unique, poignant and comical insight into how the world of porn has affected the concept of sex for a whole generation.
Crossline Theatre’s (wo)manifesto is to create new work that shares women’s stories inspired by their multicultural ancestry, their bodies and their social experiences and Friday Night Love Poem, previously seen in London at the Camden People’s Theatre in 2019, is no different – ending the silence on female sexual enjoyment.
