Purple Snowflakes and Titty Wanks by Sarah Hanly. Jerwood Upstairs, Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, London SW1 to 12 February 2022. 4****. William Russell

One thing is for sure whatever little girls are made of it is not sugar and spice and all things nice, if, indeed, I ever believed the old rhyme. This funny, frank and eye popping account of the discovery of sex and all that follows by Saoirse, a young Irish girl from Wicklow, who confides it all to her best friend Aisling is a joint production with the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, where it premiered last year. Her discovery of sex is a revelation and I will never look at a string of pearls in quite the same way again. She goes to London to study musical theatre and her sexual odyssey continues. Hanlon delivers her play - she performs all the parts - with style and seemingly inexhaustible energy as she swings from Jack's beanstalk and whips out all the paraphernalia she needs from one of those zipped bags people war round their waist. What she has to say is smartly phrased and entertaining and also opens a world to the audience in which girls do what boys do. Purple by the way is her word replacing one she hates - lesbian as her journey of discovery is not just confined to boys.
The play begins as it means to go on as after Aisling asks how she learned how to make her own organisms Saoirse replies - "Practice and determination." Then she offers to show her how but fortunately she does not get quite that far. It is not all jokes - sexual awakening can be no laughing matter and her family background is complicated. The result is an evening 65 minute to relish. You will leave having learned a lot and laughed a lot in spite of the fact that life can at times be no laughing matter.

Performed by Sarah Hanly.

Director: Alice Fitzgerald.
Designer: Jacob Lucy.
Sound Designer: Alexandra Faye Braithwaite.
Movement Director: Rachael Nanyonjo.
Drama Therapist: Nikki Disney.