Gabriel Quigley’s adaptation of Muriel Spark’s The Girls Of Slender Means combines lively social satire with contemporary resonances and tragedy. Following five young women as they grapple with the consequences of World War II, it captures their fragile hopes and disappointments as the conclusion of conflict brings home fresh horrors.

With a strong ensemble cast, Roxana Silbert’s sprightly direction and a script that encompasses both the patriarchy’s discreet oppression and the women’s irrepressible energy, the play depicts a familiar Britain, emerging from catastrophe and trying to hide its emotional pain beneath a veneer of charm and fortitude. While a first act establishes the women’s vivacity and the lurking threat of unexploded bombs (both literal and psychological), the second half moves steadily towards a brutal tragedy.
The show’s joy comes from the women’s interactions as they dance, work and consider how to better themselves and grow into their ambitions. Told through the perspective of Jane Wright (played with elegance and charisma by Molly Vevers), the script leans into wry humour and compassionate characterisation that offers more power to its satire than the final tragedy. Indeed, the framing device (Jane looking back on the past from her position as a successful editor) distances the drama, too neatly folding its climax into merely another episode in a life well-lived. The production, like its protagonists, is bursting with dynamism and ideas but seems not quite able to contain them all.
The Girls Of Slender Means, Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, until Saturday 4 May.