Sistren Review: A Profound Love Story Between Two Best Friends
In what might be the most profound love story on a Sydney stage this year, Sistren makes a triumphant return to Griffin Theatre Company following its smash-hit run in the 2025 independent artist program. Writer and star Iolanthe's debut play explores the soulmate-friendship between Isla and Violet with remarkable emotional depth and stylistic flair.
A Lethal Combination of Joy and Resistance
We meet Isla (played by Iolanthe) and Violet (portrayed by Janet Anderson) at their South London high school, where they've been summoned to the headmaster's office. This is clearly not their first visit - the administrator has little tolerance for what he calls their "political correctness" and seems personally offended by their vibrant joy. What becomes immediately apparent is that this joy they create together is essential to their survival as a Black girl and a trans girl navigating a world filled with stares, assumptions, and prejudice.
The headmaster labels them a "lethal combination" - a phrase they immediately consider as a potential name for a future girl group - and suspends them over Isla's spontaneous rant against anti-pesticides in food technology class. More devastatingly, he orders the two friends separated at school for the remainder of the academic year and threatens to involve their families to enforce this separation beyond school hours.
Final Hours of Friendship
The bulk of Sistren unfolds during their final hours together, with the pair hiding in a neglected classroom featuring faulty smoke alarms where Violet can smoke a cigarette in glamorous peace. This space represents their sanctuary, where they feel safe and connected. As announcements over the loudspeaker count down to the building's closure - potentially signaling the end of their friendship - Isla and Violet's bond must withstand both external pressures and internal tensions to survive.
Iolanthe's play bursts forth like a firework: propulsive, explosive, glittery, and ultimately triumphant. This stylish and stylized production privileges the inner worlds of these two young women, granting their experiences, emotions, and interests the depth and respect they deserve. Their communication operates through a pop-culture shorthand of shared references, quotes, and memes - including pitch-perfect renditions of iconic Celebrity Big Brother soundbites - all deployed like musical numbers to express their heightened emotional states.
A Party with Emotional Depth
While the production feels like a celebration, it's powered by a clear and engaging emotional arc that director Ian Michael guides with care and, when appropriate, a twinkle in the eye. Iolanthe ensures audiences get a full theatrical experience - within the first five minutes, there's an Elaine Stritch lip-sync performance and pink confetti. The production incorporates music, dancing, and abundant conversation between the characters, who frequently address the audience directly, inviting theatergoers into their conspiratorial gossip.
These direct addresses serve crucial worldbuilding functions, delivered efficiently so the focus remains on the emotional core of the story - the hearts of Isla and Violet. Even the set design by Emma White exists within their emotional landscape: a classroom completely covered in fluffy pink material that lines the desks, borders the old-school clock, and frames the screen where projections by TK Abioye display internet evidence and key images for emphasis.
Exploring Complex Cultural Intersections
This fantasia of softer edges creates a filter of femininity, much like the music-video school uniforms the characters wear - sufficiently "yassified" to transcend reality and signal that Isla and Violet's shared inner world takes precedence here. As the friends talk, argue, and untangle the messy connections between queer culture and appropriated Black culture, between gender-affirming cosmetic beauty and anti-feminist performance of beauty for the male gaze, between personal intimacies and cultural understanding gaps, the play delves deeper into the agonies and ecstasies of defining, growing, and fighting for sisterhood.
Sistren emerges as ferocious, funny, and remarkably tender - qualities mirrored in Iolanthe and Anderson's performances. Their comic timing proves devilishly precise, their hearts remain open to the audience, and when Isla and Violet become vulnerable with each other, both actors are fully, heart-achingly present for each other and for everyone watching. Audiences will undoubtedly fall in love with their love.
The production continues at Belvoir's Downstairs Theatre in Sydney through May 3rd, offering a powerful exploration of friendship, identity, and resistance through a uniquely contemporary theatrical lens.
