A boisterous coming-of-age comedy and brave confrontation of workplace sexual harassment, Almost Adult is inspired by Charlotte Anne-Tilley’s own experience as a young woman taking on The Big City. This big-hearted and honest play returns to Edinburgh to interrogate the ways in which we fail ourselves and each other, as well as the ways in which we draw upon internal strength in the face of hardship.
Hope’s leaving her hometown up North for the bright lights of London and it’s going to be mindblowing. There will be attractive Hinge dates, mature new friends, and a job at a dinosaurthemed bar – she’s living her best life. Although her manager is perhaps unhinged, and her housemate seems to hate her, and everything’s falling apart. But it’s far more likely that everything is, in fact, going brilliantly, maybe. After all, Hope is becoming an (almost) adult.
Deploying quick-witted character comedy with a fissure of fury, Charlotte Anne-Tilley (Winner of Everything Theatre’s Award for Ingenuity and 4theatre’s Best Debut Performance) stands up to unacceptable workplace investigation practices surrounding sexual harassment and assault, following an appalling experience at a large immersive entertainment company in London. This incisive show gives voice to the thousands of women who have been silenced or challenged when they spoke out.
Charlotte Anne-Tilley comments, Nearly every young woman I know has been sexually harassed or assaulted. Grabbed, stroked, squeezed. These women are tired, angry – horrified. They are also complicated women in their own rights. They are funny, unexpected and, at times, dysfunctional. Hope gives a voice to these women, each of us trying to gracefully navigate a world that is systematically built against us.
