The Wolves

The Wolves is a 2016 one-act play by Sarah DeLappe. It premiered Off-Broadway at The Duke at 42nd Street in September 2016 and centers on the experiences of high school girls through their weekly Saturday morning pre-game soccer warmups. The play received multiple awards and was a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Synopsis The Wolves is set in an indoor soccer facility. Each scene depicts the nine teenage girls who make up the Wolves, a high school soccer team, conversing while they warm up before their game each week. In most scenes, the team is going through a stretching routine led by #25, the team captain, or doing practice exercises. The girls sometimes continue their gossip from the previous week, bringing up new developments or related topics. The first scene opens with discussion of the sentencing of an elderly participant of the Cambodian genocide, and conversations stem from there. Overlapping dialogue illustrates an atmosphere where each group of girls have their own, specific conversations while still chiming in on the main topic. These spin-offs include global politics, social gossip about each other and unseen characters, their bodies, their coach's obvious hangovers, their desire to play soccer in college, and speculations about the new girl, #46, who is homeschooled and new to the area. Their conversations are often inappropriate and cause conflict amongst the teammates. #00, the goalie, suffers from social anxiety attacks and runs outside to vomit before each game. #46 slowly begins to fit in and most girls seem to grow more comfortable with each other as the season progresses. A ski trip taken by #7 and #14 before the second-to-last game leaves the team suffering from injuries and internal drama. #7 suffers a career-ending injury, which forces #46 to step up. She excels, and is even scouted along with two other girls while the rest watch enviously from the sidelines. #14 expresses her anger towards #7 about her neglect during the ski trip and being left with a strange guy (#7's boyfriend's friend). They fight, and end the day on a terrible note.