Angus, Thongs and Even More Snogging – review

For anyone who has neither been, nor parented, a teenage girl over the past 10 years, Georgia Nicholson is the creation of teen fiction author Louise Rennison , whose first novel, Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging sold over 1m copies, was adapted into a film entitled Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging and has now become a stage play which promises – you guessed it – more snogging than ever before. Rennison and co-adapter Mark Catley have compressed a decade's worth of books into a Georgia Nicholson highlights package, which does lead to a certain degree of repetition, though Rennison doesn't set the bar particularly high, stating simply that "some of you may laugh, some may cry, some may have a little accident in the piddly-diddly department". In case you need help with the title, Angus is a randy cat with a roving eye for the precious Burmese next door; thongs are the opposite of the huge "undercrackers" worn by Georgia's dad; and the intensity of snogging is measured in lights by an on-stage Snog-o-meter. The news that David Cameron "went straight to number 10" prompts a "laughing spaz to end all laughing spazzes". However, there's a curiously old-fashioned feel to Georgia and her mates – none of whom appear interested in social media or even own a mobile phone – that suggests Tony Blair is still in charge, while the storylines have scarcely developed beyond the sentimentalised photo romances of Jackie magazine. In short, Georgia seems somewhat closer to a fiftysomething woman's fantasy of a teenage girl than the real thing; though Naomi Petersen's performance is so winning that she immediately gets the audience on side, and Ryan McBryde's up-tempo production has a gauche exuberance that becomes difficult to resist. I laughed, I cried, though if there was an accident in the piddly-diddly department I'm not likely to admit it here.