This new play with music was commissioned by Vineyard Theatre and American Conservatory Theater, and Eisa Davis’s intimate portrait of four gifted teenage girls navigating a transformative summer in Berkeley deserves to be seen before it closes on Sunday, June 21.

In the world of “||: Girls :||: Chance :||: Music :||,” directed by Pam MacKinnon, a free summer music program becomes a sanctuary where Hillary Fisher’s Fax (a perfectionist singer), Yeena Sung’s Rile (an emotionally expressive pianist), Naomi Latta’s Margot (a visionary drummer), and Gianna DiGregorio Rivera’s Clementine (a disciplined multi-instrumentalist) forge bonds through music that transcend ordinary teenage friendship. What unfolds is a play about art as survival, the intensity of female connection, and what happens when young women are given space to create together.

The heart of Davis’s play is the “sonic language” that Fax and Margot develop—a musical shorthand that becomes sacred between them. When Fax shares this language with Rile, a rupture occurs. But the play understands something essential: art cannot remain private. It must be released into the world, even when that release costs something. As Margot says, “follow the sound”—and the characters, each in their own way, must decide whether they will.

The play’s genius is its refusal to sentimentalize adolescence. These girls deal with perfectionism, eating disorders, substance use, homelessness, non-traditional family structures, and the overwhelming question of what it means to grow up in a world of constant disaster. Yet they also experience moments of pure bliss—particularly in their collaborative final concert piece, “Never Been,” where the three of them achieve what the script calls “a peak experience. They are making music at its purest, generating bliss.”

The flash-forward sequence that concludes the play is devastating precisely because it shows the cost of growing up: Fax abandons music for a practical life and regrets it. Rile becomes a film composer but watches AI do the actual work. Only Margot—the homeless girl, the visionary—remains devoted to music. She becomes a touring professional, “untethered / accountable to no one but her gift.” She makes “a new family on stage every night.”

Fisher brings vulnerability and precision to Fax’s anxiety. Sung captures Rile’s emotional expressiveness and complexity. But it is Latta who carries the play’s spiritual weight as Margot—a girl for whom music is not a career path but a lifeline. DiGregorio Rivera’s quiet discipline as Clementine raises questions about what we value: passion or practice? Expression or precision?

Nina Ball’s scenic design, Mel Ng’s costumes, Russell H. Champa’s lighting, and Fan Zhang’s sound create an intimate world where these four girls can be fully seen. Eisa Davis’s original compositions are woven throughout, and the opening audience participation with the tone row sets the stage for a play that makes music central—not as decoration, but as the actual language of transformation.

This is a rare play about girls and art, about what we give up when we grow up, and about the power of music to sustain us through homelessness, heartbreak, and the uncertainty of becoming ourselves. Don’t miss the final performances.