Essay: “This is the burden of every little girl”

An essay on Thelma & Louise at the Young Vic.

When I was asked to choose a theatre for my little trip to London, this play was the obvious choice. The film is a classic, which I recently became very fond of. So instead of the usual activities you do when you're 20 years old on a drunken spree in England, my friend and I took a highly cultural trip to the Young Vic . Still, the party atmosphere followed us into the theatre, where we were immediately struck by the bright, yellow light from the theatre bar and the drunken Americana in the facility. So far, everything was relatively in line with what I expected. The stage lights went down, and I was thrown into a story filled with loss, despair, struggle, and not least friendship.

The movie that was supposed to save the world

Thelma & Louise is based on the 1991 film of the same name. Both the musical adaptation and the original film were written by Callie Khouri. The plot follows the two women on the run from the law after Louise shoots a man who tries to rape Thelma. This incident leads the two women deeper into a criminal rabbit hole.

Directed by Ridley Scott, starring Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis, the film was immediately hailed as a strong pillar of women's struggle, and a pioneering film with women in the driving seat. Here's what Geena Davis had to say to Variety about the response at the time on the film's 30th anniversary:

"The reaction from women was so strong and nothing I'd ever seen before. It made me realize how few opportunities we have for women to come out [of] a movie feeling empowered by the female character," (Davis, 2021)

Davis' perspective on the film in retrospect is intriguing. At the time, she was a young actress in Hollywood, an industry that wasn't always respectful of women. The film came as a clear bright spot for both Davis and the industry. It's a script and a film that has ambitions to "save the world" in its fight for women's rights and freedom. With that, the film also gave hope for the future, something Davis herself also dreamed of.

“I'm thinking, hot dog, let's sit back and wait for all this magic change to happen …” (Davis, 2021)

Unfortunately, she herself has experienced that the world took a different turn than the film originally hoped for.

"We're still waiting. It really didn't happen." (Davis, 2021)

The new pain behind

35 years later, Callie Khouri has returned to her original work with fresh eyes and perhaps a less hopeful look at the world women face in 2026. The story is still fast and fluid, with humor and lovely chemistry between Thelma and Louise, played by Amy Lennox and Rachel Tucker, but this is far from a direct stage adaptation of the source material. It is clear that the author's pain in the stage adaptation is different from the film.

Khouri has emerged as a kind of protagonist for me. It became clear that the transition to musical opened many doors for Khouri to dig deeper into the themes and unrest that the two women experience. The changes have such a clear intention that I was very fascinated. The story here is similar to the previous one, but obstacles that the women could only run over before have taken on a whole new weight and hopelessness.

The two women are robbed of all their money at one point by a younger man named JD, who Thelma was with on the road. Louise is completely distraught. Thelma desperately tries to find a solution, but it is not something that can be solved in an instant. The last thing we see before the break is Louise on her knees. She lets out one of the loudest and most desperate screams I have ever heard. Thelma gives up on her search, and collapses on top of the pool table she was searching in. The tragedy was obviously present in the film, but it gets so much more space on stage; their despair is the focus.

The despair in today's women's struggle

In the program, Khouri writes that it seems like the world has gone backwards. Women have fewer rights today than when the film was released, she writes. She adds that she wants her art to face this truth. I see this as the core of the new work she has done with the script. Her work has become a painful reflection on the situation many women face today.

In the United States, where the film takes place, things have gotten particularly bad. Women no longer have statutory abortion rights after the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022, and there are still large economic differences between men and women in the workforce. More damaging is the male chauvinism that has emerged in much of Western culture, perhaps especially in the United States. Many right-wing men and influencers talk about men as superior to women, and find a logic that justifies this thinking and protects the patriarchy. To me, this feels absurd, but it is clear that they have succeeded: In 2024, The Guardian wrote that the current US president has at least 24 allegations of sexual assault against him, and despite this, he was still elected. 

Recently, another incident has come to light, and this horrific incident has weighed heavily on me in recent weeks. A former student at Cornell University in New York, has said that in 2024 she was raped by seven different men at a party. The woman was allegedly pressured to drink and take drugs until she was immobile. According to her, she was then raped for seven hours, and there has also been photographic evidence of her being referred to as “Free Pussy” in a group chat. It is one of the most tragic and disgusting cases I have ever seen. What is worse is that Cornell University apparently knew about the case. They took very mild disciplinary action, and chose not to take the case to an official legal system.

I must admit that my experience of watching Thelma & Louise was colored by this incident. I found the women's despair less entertaining and more tragic, because the portrayal of the events Thelma and Louise go through is a representation of something larger. When Louise shoots Harlan, the man who tries to rape Thelma, it is clear to the audience that the shot is 100% justified; it was self-defense. But Louise immediately realizes that it could be the same. From here on, they are lost. 

Men's responsibilities 

It is perhaps no coincidence that by far the biggest change Callie Khouri has made between film and stage is the role of men in the story. On stage, most men are a clear threat. In the film, Thelma and Louise have a few male allies, but with one exception, these roles have become either less or more hostile. Louise's boyfriend Jimmy, is less involved and has a much less nuanced role. It is less surprising when JD robs the two girls on stage, because he seems relatively dubious and manipulative from the start.

In addition, the playwright has added more threatening characters. We get more perspectives from within the police, many of whom are only concerned with catching the women, and treat them inhumanely and as objects.

The one exception is the police chief Hal, who throughout the play wants the best for the women. He therefore stands out extremely from the rest of the male ensemble. Nevertheless, I would argue that he also has a kind of savior complex towards them at times. In one of the strongest scenes in the play, Hal asks his wife if she could ever shoot someone. His wife points out that he now looks at the two women very impersonally, and does not take into account the situation they are in. Then she answers his question: "Could I ever shoot somebody? It's a goddamn miracle I don't do it every day!"

Hal ends up risking his job to warn Thelma and Louise that the police know where they are. It is possibly the most optimistic part of the play. In the Cornell case, many questioned why so many men were silent. Men must be part of the fight for women's safety and rights. There is no way around it. We must weaken the culture that protects men's egos and protects us from responsibility. Khouri has chosen to portray most men as hostile to women in the play. It is frighteningly close to our world today. Many men are not consciously hostile to women, but we live in a society that protects men from responsibility for their actions. And by not fighting the system that protects men, even those who constantly harm women, you participate in defending it. The play acknowledges that not all men are assholes, but the police chief is not a true hero until he warns them on the phone. Not until he actually fights for them.

All in all, this performance hit me hard. I think it's because Khouri has made changes, which reflect my own pessimism about the women's struggle and how far one can actually fight for change. But in the weeks that have passed since the Cornell case broke, it has become clear that Khouri is not alone in her frustration. The protests have been loud, and I want so fervently that one might dare to hope for change.