Growing Pains explores the best and worst bits of friendship reunions

Reunions. They’re fre­quent­ly one of the most social­ly awk­ward occa­sions for us all, espe­cial­ly when it comes to old friends. Who’s slay­ing in their lane? Who’s still stuck in the past? Who’s that with your exe? And what will so-and-so think of you now?

Awk­ward. So, in oth­ers words: per­fect dra­ma for a stage play.

Grow­ing Pains, a new pro­duc­tion writ­ten by play­wright and author Kahlia Bakosi, will explore the spe­cial con­nec­tion we share with our friends when it comes to the stage on Sat­ur­day, March 10.

Bakosi told Fringe Fre­quen­cy what prompt­ed her to write the play: “My own per­son­al expe­ri­ences of break­ing away from var­i­ous friend­ship groups as I jour­neyed through my youth.

“I found con­nec­tions I could once whole­heart­ed­ly defend had dwin­dled and with­ered with time. Peo­ple became so dif­fi­cult to recog­nise and oth­er friends I had made told a sto­ry too sim­i­lar, which was of great inter­est to me.”

Direct­ed by Kay Dove and Kahlia Bakosi, Grow­ing Pains asks: how well do we know our friends? Does time apart real­ly change things? Is there an expiry date on friend­ship? And are you a true friend if you’re keep­ing secrets?

“Peo­ple can expect to laugh and to be shocked at var­i­ous points,” said Bakosi. “I want peo­ple to reflect on their child­hood and find par­al­lels in some of the char­ac­ters’ per­son­al­i­ties. If you were invit­ed to Xavier’s reunion drink up, who would you be?”

Bakosi is no stranger to explor­ing the com­plex­i­ty of young rela­tion­ships. Her pre­vi­ous work includes the play, Bot­tle Up and Explode, and short sto­ry, Twice.

The cast of Grow­ing Pains includes Isaac Ade as Aaron, Yin­ka Fadeyi as Christi­na, Chiedu Agborh as Richie, Oluchi Nwabuwa as Ezer­e­na, and Don­tae Lind­say as Xavier.

Grow­ing Pains is pre­sent­ed by ATSix Arts and takes place on March 10, 2018, at the DIY Space for Lon­don, SE15 1TF. There will be a mati­nee show­ing and an evening showing.

Tick­ets are priced from £12, and can be pur­chased here.

Image: cour­tesy of Kahlia Bakosi