Description
DIGITAL SCRIPT | OVERVIEW
Gal Pals by Sam Nerida is a queer-coming-of-age comedy that explores the formation of queer friendship and solidarity in an unlikely setting: a conversion therapy camp. Gal Pals is grounded in the reality that conversion therapy remains inconsistently legislated across Australia, while refusing to reduce its characters to the institution around them. At its heart, Gal Pals is about the love and friendships these young women find: the diversity amongst them, and the solidarity that binds them. Gal Pals is a contemporary Australian play that pairs big political structures with the fierce tenderness of queer friendship. Set against the ongoing reality of conversion-therapy practices in Australia, the work centres solidarity, humour, and survival — with Matildas’ merch held high.
A love letter to queer normalcy, Gal Pals sees the glowing formation of fast friendships, female solidarity and self-acceptance set against a shadowy backdrop of systemic homophobia. These girls will certainly walk away changed, but not in the way the flyer advertised.
SYNOPSIS
Five queer teens are thrown together in a conversion-therapy camp. Over two intense weeks, they navigate smuggled phones, attempted escapes, betrayal, and the small rebellions that keep them alive — finding laughter, love, and a fierce, messy solidarity in one another. Gal Pals follows five young women as they endure a conversion-therapy programme designed to “fix” them. The play is grounded in the lived reality that conversion therapy remains inconsistently legislated across Australia, while refusing to minimise its characters by the actions of the institution that surrounds them. Instead, the heart of the story is the bond these young people build: their differences, their clashes, their tenderness, and the way friendship becomes a lifeline. It’s not about what’s being said in class — it’s about how they survive it all in the arms of one another.
PRODUCTION HISTORY
WA Youth Theatre Company commissioned Gal Pals for their 2022 ’40-Hour Play Generator’ project and then retrospectively expanded it. Scarlet Rose first produced it at the Blue Room Theatre on 9th April 2024.
ISBNÂ
978-1-76161-411-8
Queer Digital Drama Script
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