Theresa Ikoko’s Girls, the prize-winning play about three Nigerian schoolgirls abducted by militant insurgents, returns to the London stage this autumn. Directed by Ewa Dina, the production runs in the Young Vic’s Maria Theatre from October 22 to November 21, 2026, with a press night on October 27. It marks the play’s first major UK revival.

Set in Nigeria in 2014, the year hundreds of girls were kidnapped from their homes by Boko Haram, Girls follows Tisana, Haleema, and Ruha, teenage best friends who are busy swapping notes on celebrities and dodging carbs when they’re taken by militant insurgents and forced toward an uncertain future. With only each other to turn to, they must hold on as fear and religious differences begin to fracture their bond, and the play asks how far a friendship can be tested before it breaks.

Hannah Akhalu plays Tisana, Tara Tijani plays Haleema, and Sewa Zamba plays Ruha. Set and costume designs are by Raphaé Memon.

Dina, who makes her Young Vic debut, won the 2026 JMK Award, which gives an early-career director the chance to stage a full-scale professional play. She was selected from a shortlist of seven artists, chosen from more than 250 applicants.

Ikoko was born and raised in Hackney, London, and is a British playwright and screenwriter of Nigerian descent. Girls was her first professionally produced play, and it won the Alfred Fagon Award in 2015 and the George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright in 2016, and was a finalist for the Verity Bargate Award. It premiered in 2016 at the Hightide Festival, in association with Soho Theatre and Talawa Theatre Company, and was published by Bloomsbury Methuen Drama the following year.

If you’re in London this autumn, this is one to see. Get your tickets here.