Crush is a new play written and co-directed by Hannah Eggleton, presented by an Oxford University student company (Write Off productions) at the North Wall. Crush was the winner of the RSC 37 Plays playwriting competition. This was an exciting opportunity in 2023 for new plays to be submitted by anyone in the UK to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s first folio. Although Crush riffs off a school production of Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, the only request from the RSC was that the writing had to reflect something of contemporary life which Hannah Eggleton’s candid script definitely does.

Crush is presented by a small cast with inter-changing gender roles, often used for humorous effect. The very specific setting of a, presumably private and definitely religious, girls’ boarding school (St Margaret’s) is brilliantly chosen. Although there are particularities which not everyone will identify with, such as crossing the quads for morning prayer, there is a universality to the boredom of slumped teenagers avoiding eye contact. The play is primarily told through the dialogue (with back-hand put-downs of each-other to the audience) between two best friends Annie and Jo. They have a suffocating friendship where most of their conversation is pretty inane probably because they spend too much time together. They edit the literary gazette together and organise the book club which their rival, new girl (Mary), says that she hasn’t joined “because I’m not a virgin”. The past transgressions they gossip about at St Margaret’s are notably tame, stealing gel pens was headline news. So when Mary bunks off class, swears and talks about sex with blunt indifference, they don’t know what to do with themselves. Add into that awkward mix, a new young teacher (Miss Evans) who wants to shake things up a bit in the English department, feelings quickly run very high.

To me, Crush is about the frustration of adolescence. There is a point where the bigger context of what really matters in life starts to open up which jars somewhat with the everyday mundanity of needing to do your school homework. I think this conflict, probably especially when living in an institution, can mean that seemingly minor disagreements quickly escalate and everything seems a huge deal. This happens in Crush with a unforeseen twist at the end which exposes the girls’ true emotional immaturity. It encapsulates perfectly that feeling of shameful regret when you realise that something stupid you said or did was in fact, deeply hurtful.