Review: VL

Square Go, Kieran Hurley and Gary McNair’s hilarious study of male adolescent anxiety from 2018, introduced us to Max and Stevie, sensitive lads low on the pecking order of their rough-and-tumble school, Hammerston High. Back then, they were cowering in the boys’ toilet ahead of Max’s showdown with a terrifying bully. In this winning sequel, it’s not violence Max fears but intimacy: he’s heading to Hammerston’s end-of-year disco where he has to find a girl to kiss, or forever be labelled a VL.

Those unfamiliar with Scottish high-school vernacular are quickly educated: VL means “virgin lips”, and so much more. Hurley and McNair depict high school as a cruel ecosystem filled with illogical codes and hierarchies, which become even more complex when you factor in the hormone-induced “pingers” that threaten to humiliate the lads at any given moment.

Decked out in garish neon trackies, Scott Fletcher and Gavin Jon Wright reprise their roles as the best pals, with Wright particularly entertaining as Stevie, who still likes to deploy ten-dollar words like “cantankerous” and “transcendental” despite having no clue what they mean. Their crackerjack performances, and the zippy direction by Orla O’Loughlin, give VL a similar boisterous energy to Square Go, but its edges are even more tender. There’s also a hint of homoeroticism among the machismo this time around, confused further by Wright also playing the cool girl of Max’s dreams. If Hurley and McNair continue to return to these delightful characters in years to come, it would be most welcome.