Sherman Theatre in Cardiff and Swansea-based creative collective Grand Ambition are joining forces to stage a brand new production exploring childhood criminal exploitation in Wales.
Hot Chicks by Rebecca Jade Hammond is an unsettling and darkly comic new play tackling one of the most urgent national crises of our times.
Teenagers Ruby and Kyla spend their evenings hanging at Cheney’s chicken shop dreaming of moving to Vegas and going viral. A chance encounter with older, cooler Sadie means their dreams of pool parties and showering in dollars could become a reality… but at what price?
Hot Chicks will be performed at Sherman Theatre in Cardiff 21 March-5 April 2025, then at Swansea Grand Theatre 16-25 April 2025.
While developing the production, the creative team liaised with charities, social services and third sector organisations including CMET (Contextual, Missing, Exploitation and Trafficking - Safeguarding Children and Young People in Swansea from Extra-Familial Harm), the office of the Children's Commissioner for Wales and staff at YMCA Swansea. An education and engagement programme, borne of that research, will be delivered alongside the play to raise awareness of exploitation.
Hot Chicks is directed by Hannah Noone and performed by a cast of Welsh actors; Richard Elis, Izzi McCormack John, Londiwe Mthembu and Rachel Redford.
Hannah said: “Hot Chicks follows the friendship of two 15-year-old girls growing up in Swansea today, capturing that heady mix of freedom and fear, throwing you headfirst into their fast-paced, TikTok-fuelled reality—thrilling, messy, and sometimes unsettling. It invites audiences to see the world today through their eyes—with all its new found possibilities and hidden dangers, raising urgent questions about the safety and wellbeing of young people today.”
Playwright Rebecca Jade Hammond said: “In recent years, cuts to youth clubs, community centres and closing of parks have made vulnerable young people easy targets for organised crime networks.
“More recently, there has been an increase in girls and young women playing key roles and it is those women I wanted to put front and centre of this play. Hot Chicks is about those young girls who fall through the cracks of education and society, forgotten.”
Sherman Theatre’s Artistic Director Joe Murphy said: “This is the definition of a local story that speaks to the world. Rebecca’s new play is both unnerving and funny; an unflinching look behind the lurid headlines at the people - the women especially, in this case - who fall into the dangerous trap of organised crime. It’s compelling and angry, but with a genuine tenderness and humanity at its heart.”
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