The Party Girls | Birmingham Rep

From Little Women’s March sisters to The Nolans and even the Kardashians, there’s something eternally fascinating about a group of sisters. Perhaps it’s the rivalry, the jealousy and cruelty that only sisters can truly inflict on one another. Or maybe it’s the fierce love and protectiveness that lies underneath. Whatever the reason, the British public’s obsession with the Mitford sisters shows no sign of fading, especially after the success of the recent six-part drama Outrageous, which premiered in June this year.

After seeing The Party Girls at The Rep, I understand why the Mitfords continue to captivate us. Amy Rosenthal’s play, directed by Richard Beecham, moves seamlessly between decades, exploring politics, privilege, and sisterhood through sharp dialogue and shifting time frames.

The play opens in Washington D.C., 1942, where rebellious 25-year-old Jessica “Decca” (Emma Noakes) meets Bob Treuhaft (Joe Coen), a Jewish New Yorker. Their rapid-fire exchanges could give Gilmore Girls a run for its money. We then glide back to 1930s Oxfordshire to meet the rest of the Mitford clan: novelist Nancy (Kirsty Besterman), serene socialite Diana (Elisabeth Dermot Walsh), Hitler-obsessed Unity (Ell Potter), and tender- hearted animal lover Deborah “Debo” (Flora Spencer-Longhurst).

These family scenes are the most compelling. They fizz with humour and warmth one moment, and diving into chilling ideological clashes the next. One standout moment came when Unity drew a chilling parallel between Hitler’s nationalism and her hopes for England, a line that landed uncomfortably close to home in today’s climate.

The play later leaps to France in 1969, where Nancy is dying at her home in Versailles. After years of estrangement, the sisters reunite. You might expect a tender reconciliation, but Rosenthal resists sentimentality. The performances here are beautifully judged; the actors capture the weight of age and history without resorting to caricature. I even found myself checking the programme to confirm it wasn’t a different cast in the later scenes.

Designer Simon Kenny rises to the challenge of staging such fluid time shifts. A translucent curtain acts as a canvas for projected dates and locations, while set pieces glide in and out, the childhood home travelling the furthest across the stage, as if echoing the distance of memory. Though a few transitions felt slightly clunky, Adrienne Quartly’s score, blending classical motifs with modern electronic undertones, smoothed the momentum nicely.

Ultimately, Beecham directs a brisk, ambitious production that occasionally struggles to keep pace with its own timeline, but remains deeply engaging throughout. Rosenthal’s writing shines. It is sharp, funny, and unafraid to expose the contradictions within these extraordinary women. The Party Girls is a witty, thought-provoking exploration of family, ideology, and the ties that both bind and break us.

The Party Girls plays at the Birmingham Rep until 11th October 2025.

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★★★☆☆ (3*)

Gifted tickets in return for an honest review | Photography by Mark Senior