When one of three girls asks ‘how do you know?’ and then ‘what does it feel like?’ you can probably guess what they’re discussing, or perhaps I have a dirty mind.

I don’t think so. I thinks Girls opens unapologetically and forthright, starting as it means to go on.

They are exactly what it says on the tin, they are Girls. Tisana, Ruhab and Haleema do each other’s hair and talk of shared friends, they are crude, they are silly and they are suffering, but they are brave.

The play is in an unknown place in Africa, knowable from the accents and the featured food such a garri and milo. Many will assume Nigeria following from the abduction of the Chibok Girls but author Theresa Ikoko says her inspiration was all unnamed girls around the world captured and suffering.

The stage is bare and stark like their situation, it is just you and them. Nobody and nothing else is needed.

Not on stage anyway, but when one begins sneaking out at night in a bid to save herself and her friends their sisterhood splinters and another feels betrayed.

The acting is exceptional unfaltering while the ups-and-downs of the story flows fluidly.

Theresa’s message, which we discussed in our earlier interview which you can read here, about all the unnamed and so easily forgotten girls we see in the media really hits home when they talk of being saved and Haleema says “even if on every red carpet, every award show, they had to wade through the blood of all that these people have killed in order to get their seats, do you think an ounce of difference would be made?”

This amongst the littered references to Kim Kardashian, Rihanna, Princess Kate and the worthlessness of hashtag activism forces you to question our society’s values.

Twice I found myself blinking back tears, not just because of the strength in writing and in acting but also of the hopelessness of it all.

When I spoke to Theresa she said to me: “If people walk away from Girls and don’t see the joy and celebration of friendship I will feel like I have failed” and even though I left pondering the extent to which we are failing women all around the world, in this respect at least I would like to tell her that she succeeded.

Girls will run at Soho Theatre, 21 Dean St, London, W1D 3NE, until Saturday, October 29. Details: 020 7478 0100