A raw, unflinching portrayal of child exploitation which is unsettling and uncomfortable to watch. This play is tough, but important. Rating
Excellent
It’s been 16 years since the news of the Rochdale and Rotherham organised child sexual exploitation scandals broke and 10 years since playwright Phil Davies created Firebird. Whilst the world has changed considerably in 16 years, sadly this play still feels prevalent and important. As Davies says in the programme notes “a play written ten years ago should feel like history”.
We first meet Tia (Mollie Milne) and Katie (Kelise Gordon-Harrison) drinking together, playing silly games, teasing each other. Something teenagers all around the country are doing. But there are secrets between the girls. At first it’s hard to decipher who’s keeping the biggest. Is it Katie with her coy answers to questions about her virginity or is it Tia hiding behind her arrogance and cruel teasing?
We next meet Tia looking worse for wear outside a kebab shop; she’s desperate. Pleading with the shop owner to give her some chips in exchange for her meagre 14p, or for a handstand. This is when AJ (Taqi Nazeer) comes onto the scene, the offer of chips soon turning into posh cigarettes. Photos are taken ahead of promised modelling deals. His charm is unnerving — you can see how easily Tia is lured into his dark, horrific world and moments of laughter catch us out, as we remember what he’s doing.
The scenes depicting the grooming of Tia and references to her sexual exploitation are hard to watch. It’s uncomfortable and deeply upsetting. Tia isn’t necessarily a likeable character at many times in the play, yet her vulnerability, her desperate situation and her increasing panic at the lack of escape options make you want to reach out to the stage and rescue her. Tensions build and the finale is as shocking and as emotional as you’d expect, with the injustices of victim blaming and lack of support sadly not surprising to witness.
The cast are incredible. Milne completely inhabits the character of Tia, expertly creating this prickly character who’s suffered unimaginable horrors as a teenager. The contrast between her cocky attitude towards her friend and AJ when they first meet, and the broken girl we see as the abuse plays out, is remarkable and Milne gives a truly immaculate performance. Katie appears relatively briefly, but her childhood innocence yet incredible maturity in the final scenes presents us with a breathtaking performance from Gordon-Harrison. Nazeer’s AJ is terrifying, and his charm mixed with underlying evil is unnerving.
Music by Ákos Lustyik, set by Tomás Palmer and lighting by Ben Jacobs work together seamlessly to intensify the mood of the play. Pulsing strobe lights and bursts of electronic music are used to cut off the drama, to leave our imagination to fill in the horrors and to reflect the chaotic nature of this new world Tia finds herself in. Even a brief pause for a technical issue didn’t take away from the power of the play.
There’s no sugar-coating it: this is such a hard play to watch. I leave the theatre with an intense feeling of grief, not just for Tia, but for all the children this has happened to. I’m angry and distraught, but isn’t that what theatre is meant to do? Provoke reaction. Firebird tells a story that we must never forget, so that the horrors really do become part of our country’s history and not something the survivors are still having to fight against.
Written by Phil Davies
Directed by Marlie Haco
Costume design by Sarah Mercadé
Lighting design by Ben Jacobs
Sound design by Ákos Lustyik
Produced by Double Telling
Firebird is at Southwark Playhouse Borough until 1 August 2026.
