Powder Room: Toilet humour makes for riotous debut

“THE film will be an eye-opener for men,” Kate Nash says. “Because girls can be gross and bad and boys do always wonder what happens in the girls’ toilets, because we can spend ­forever in there.”

Kate Nash, left, and Oona Chaplin on a memorable girls night out in Powder Room. Picture: Contributed

Nash, 26, best known as a musician, is talking about her British acting debut in a riotous new Britflick, Powder Room, alongside Jaime Winstone, Sheridan Smith and Oona Chaplin.

Billed as the British Bridesmaids, the film (based on stage play When Women Wee, by Rachel Hirons, who also wrote the screenplay) offers a candid take on a London night out, with all the sex and drugs and rock ’n’ roll that implies.

Not only do women get all the best roles in this one, it has a female director, MJ Delaney, who made a name for herself with her YouTube spoof Newport State of Mind.

It’s entirely a girls’ story, after all. Most of the action – much of it frank – takes place in the ladies’ loo, where coke is snorted, pills are popped, angst is shared, group hugs are had, lesbian love is made, rows erupt and expertly made-up faces turn into tearful panda eyes.

Is this really what it’s like for young women in clubs today? Nash is wary of generalising – she’s always been a feminist – but she does think the film is an accurate depiction of a certain type of gathering.

“It’s like when you get all these awkward group Facebook e-mails saying ‘let’s meet up’,” she says, “you go home and see friends you’ve lost touch with, and then there’s always a drunken argument or some drama. The girls’ toilets become the crying hellhole. But the worst nights out make the best stories.

“I think people will relate to Powder Room because it’s about feeling quite lost and being in a bit of a mess in your twenties. You get to an age where you’re supposed to have ticked off lots of things. But you have all these insecurities. Yes, it’s gross and funny but there’s a point where Sheridan breaks down and it’s really hard-hitting.

“The best thing about the end of the movie is they’ve not figured it out, or found the perfect boyfriend. There’s no resolution. But some nights you do have that wake-up call of ‘Oh f***, I’m not happy with these things but I do have my friends and I’ll get where I want to go, though it might take me a bit of time’.”

• Powder Room is in cinemas from this weekend