In Conversation with Hannah Manderson | GIRLHOOD IN THE BATHROOM
In today's Backstage at Fringe, we speak to Hannah Manderson from Girlhood in the Bathroom, which comes to Explosives Factory this Fringe Festival after a season in Edinburgh Fringe!
Girlhood in the Bathroom is a new Australian Musical set entirely in a club bathroom on New Year's Eve. Amidst the chaos of the female bathroom, five 20-something-year-old girls navigate love, friendship, and the truths about the world they live in through passionate scenes and original songs!
Q: Welcome to Theatre Works! How are preparations going so far?
HANNAH: Right off the back of our Edinburgh Fringe performances, preparations are going really well! We are so excited to finally be bringing our production home to Melbourne, and so the fine-tuning of details is our biggest focus at the moment. We love always working to make our show better and improving all aspects of the production, whether it is the book or music, or production elements such as set and lighting.
Q: You're sitting in a bar on a warm October night. Eyes drifting across the room, softly swirling your drink in your hands, and bam. There they are. Your exact target audience member. Can you describe them?
HANNAH: I would be looking at a group of girls, approximately in their 20’s. All laughing together and just having a good night out, and it would be the perfect time to invite them to continue their night, but at our show instead! As we explore themes and experiences that many young women would be able to relate to, we love finding groups of girls that can come along to Girlhood in the Bathroom, watch with their friends and say ‘that’s happened to us!’ whether it be good or bad. The show is all about female friendship and the camaraderie that is celebrated between friends, but also found within strangers, especially in the girls' bathroom!
Q: What will audiences find in your show that they can't find anywhere else at Fringe?
HANNAH: A story that will make you laugh, cry, cringe, smile, reminisce, and want to dance all in one. We really do explore so many parts of growing up, and not just as a girl, but as a young adult. I think our breadth of topics in one hour really does make you feel so much, but also just allows you to laugh, and I think that is what makes our show different. Audiences of so many ages can come along and find something that they relate to, or that they empathise with, and that’s what we want everyone to know! Along with some killer vocals, we have plots that really make people feel something.
Q: What will surprise audiences about this work?
HANNAH: The depth in the topics in which our show explores is definitely a surprise for audiences. We love showcasing the fun and chaotic life that girls experience in the club bathroom, but we also know that growing up and being a girl isn’t always easy, and we aren’t afraid to comment on the hard topics. We love describing our show as emotional whiplash, as it does go through a large spectrum of emotions, but isn’t that also what girlhood is? It’s the way in which the characters come together to support each other that is the hero message of our piece, through good and bad times.
I also think the fact that our show was co-created and performed by five 21/22-year-olds is an exciting surprise for audience members. We are extremely proud to have worked together to write, perform, produce and design this work ourselves, and are extremely excited to showcase this hard work to everyone who comes and watches Girlhood in the Bathroom.
Q: What has been the most memorable moment in your process so far?
HANNAH: Being able to say that we’ve worked on a project with four of your closest friends is something we feel very grateful for, and it means we have had a lot of memorable moments along the way. I think being able to take this project to the Edinburgh Fringe in August 2026 has to be one of the favourites. We never could have imagined that eight months after finishing university, we would be flying to the United Kingdom to take our little Australian musical to an international stage, and we had so much fun and learnt so much while we were over there.
Girlhood in the Bathroom plays at Explosives Factory 6 - 17 October as a part of Melbourne Fringe.
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