a note from Tiegan about Girlhood

As the daughter of a single mother, our relationship has defined most of my life. My mum is my best friend, and a lot of the time… she’s also my worst enemy. I wouldn’t trade that relationship for anything, it’s truly something special and unique. I knew I wanted to write a story about the unique bond of mother/daughter relationships and from this, Girlhood sprang.

I first developed the ideas behind Girlhood with the Manchester-based theatre company ‘Box Of Tricks’, whilst part of their 2021 Pen Pals programme. Whilst trying to discover the themes and story behind Girlhood, I decided to interview a handful of women about their relationship to motherhood. We had conversations about their relationship to their mothers and their opinions on raising their own daughters – their excitement, their hopes but also their fears.

As I reached my mid-20s, the idea and conversation of whether to have a child became a popular talking point and this made me ponder what type of mother I would be. These thoughts began to filter into my ideas about Girlhood.

Before I wrote the play, I knew I wanted the story to be a multi-generational one. Exploring how the emotions tied with motherhood are passed down through one family and how that will influence future generations. Girlhood also touches on a subject I believe under-explored yet an increasing reality; namely that some women don’t want children.

The early drafts of Girlhood underwent readthroughs at New Diorama Theatre and at The Haymarket theatre via Masterclass, with incredibly generous actors and directors who not only gave me their time and their craft, but also their personal experiences linked to motherhood. Every exploration of Girlhood led to more insightful conversations about the female experience, and I was pushed forward to keep writing. I find now that Girlhood, although written by me, has dozens of different female voices of those who have told me stories about their childhood and their hopes and fears for the future. Ivy is not a character I made up, for instance; she has the panic of the young women I interviewed, the spirit of an actor from The New Diorama and strength of my own mother.

I hope my audiences continue the conversations started by the characters in the play, out into the real world. Conversations about what their mothers taught them, their relationship with their parents and how they have raised or would raise their children, if they want children at all.

I hope you walk away from Girlhood thinking

‘What lessons has my mother taught me?

What would I choose to pass (or not to pass) down to my child?

And why?’