4 girls the first letter e

maguire wilder

Edinburgh Fringe, August 2024
King's Head Theatre, September 2024

It starts in an alley. It starts with four girls and a video game.

It ends with three girls and a video game and a blood-stained cobblestone.

Evie and her friends are obsessed with the video-game world of The King, a frighteningly tall, spider-like man. They play every night over the course of one summer, gathering to play the game and spend time without the watchful eyes of parents or guardians, or so they think. We watch the girls play, and it becomes clear that, for Evie, the line between gameplay and reality has started to blur. When it turns out they haven’t been alone after all, a story that begins with standard tween-girl hijinks quickly devolves into something sinister, as the girls learn the truth about the darkness behind winning the game and the reality of the world around them. "4 girls the first letter e" explores how we teach young girls to grow up and who we should really be afraid of.

★★★★★ "maguire wilder's script is masterfully nuanced, with exquisite dialogue capturing the chaotic energy of girlhood...ambiguous tension runs through every scene, amplified by Maiya Pascouche's understated direction, which lets the terror simmer until it's ready to explode. All of it leads us to contemplate the fragility of childhood; were we all one twisted game away from falling into an abyss? 4 girls... is a play that crawls under your skin, an unforgettable, beautiful nightmare." - Fringe Biscuit

★★★★ "This takes a lot of risks; it's patiently paced so that the darkness creeps slowly around the edges. It's a sunlit horror that seems to hark back to the rural areas of maguire's native Atlanta, Georgia with the nightmare logic of a Junji Ito manga. This doesn't go where you think it will - until it does. Sensitively directed by Maiya Pascouche, this production from Missing Rib Collective also swings for the fences with some bold strokes and hits hard." - The Scotsman

★★★★½ "Wilder's script ... handles Ivery dark subject matter] with all due sensitivity, and gives it the emotional weight it requires. The writing is deeply emotive and honestly beautiful" - Lexical Lunacy

★★★★ "The final scene broke my heart, haunted me for days and will linger with me long after the whole Fringe is over." - Binge Fringe

"American duo [Missing Rib Collective] present a compelling and disturbing portrayal of girlhood gone wrong." - The Prickle