Review: ||: Girls :||: Chance :||: Music :||, Eisa Davis’s Concerto of Possibility

||: Girls :||: Chance :||: Music :|| might just be the most obnoxiously formatted play title of 2026, but it’s a fair representation of what Eisa Davis’s poignant and meandering drama is about. Four young women participate in a music program in Berkeley for underprivileged girls. Yes, the chance is a shot at a professional music career, but Davis is also interested in the role chance plays in the trajectory of their lives: the cruel lottery of birth, the world-changing force of natural disasters, and the unpredictability of love. These themes repeat (:|| is the repeat sign in written music) throughout this slow jam-session of a drama, which captures the improvisational nature of existence.

This world premiere production at Vineyard Theatre (a co-production with American Conservatory Theater) opens sforzando when classically trained vocalist Fax (Hillary Fisher) sees Margot (Naomi Latta) standing on the roof of the music building, as if she’s about to jump. Fax talks her down, doing most of the talking. “Words are not my vibe,” says Margot, a gifted percussionist with a messy home life. Thus begins an unexpected friendship with undertones of romance as Margot and Fax create new sounds together. But pianist Rile (Yeena Sung) also wants to play, inserting a note of dissonance.

In a highlight of the show, the trio performs what seems to be an improvised piece: “Never been to this part of my life,” Fax sweetly sings to Margot’s ever-shifting drum beat and Rile’s sly piano accompaniment. They’re all gingerly stepping into their adult lives and personalities, finding out what works and what sounds off.

Adolescent insecurities and a prestige career like music would seem to be the perfect recipe for high drama (remember Fame), but Davis eschews screaming and crying in favor of a more realistic portrayal of a generation raised on smartphones and the Internet, and therefore afraid to reveal too much of themselves in a way that might be considered cringe. A drunken rampage at the food court from Rile (the most enthusiastic consumer of drugs and alcohol in the group) constitutes the most memorable crescendo, with Sung affecting an inebriated stumble as she scatters tortilla chips across the stage.

The actors are generally good at conveying the humiliating subtext their characters seek to hide. Even though Margot uses few words, Latta’s subtly expressive face tells us everything about her impossible situation and the liberatory joy she finds in music. As Fax, Fisher is a bundle of nerves, someone acutely aware of her own self-destructive tendencies but not yet fully able to master them.

And then there’s Clementine, the underdeveloped fourth character of the play, who regularly traverses the stage bearing a flute or baritone saxophone and a big smile. Gianna DiGregorio Rivera plays her with an air of uncomplicated competence, a young person who loves music and is good at it but isn’t caught up in the meritocratic rat race, nor is she easily distracted by teenage drama. She’s the ideal candidate for a life as a professional musician, although as a dramatic character she seems a bit flimsy. We keep waiting for her conflict to drop, but it never does.

A dull lethargy plagues director Pam MacKinnon’s staging, which utilizes black-clad stagehands during too-long scene transitions. It takes place on the hardwood floors and small raised platforms of Nina Ball’s set—an ever-present reminder of little practice cubicles. Mel Ng authentically costumes our teenage characters in baggy pants and jackets, a trio of Labubus dangling from Rile’s backpack. Lighting designer Russell H. Champa and sound designer Fan Zhang collaborate with Ball to create a series of realistic earthquakes (a fact of life in California), but even that isn’t quite enough to stir the audience to attention in a play that progresses at a steady adagio.

Davis is reaching toward something difficult, which is the role chance and accident have in shaping our lives. It’s not a subject we like to entertain in America, where we embrace the myth that our will power ultimately determines our destiny. Like an important piece of contemporary music, ||: Girls :||: Chance :||: Music :|| is a worthy experiment, even if it’s not the most thrilling thing to sit through. 😐