Alien Girls” is a play about friendship—specifically female friendship—in all its messy, contradictory, deeply human glory.

Alice Franklin's new novel is a story told by an often-lonely little girl in the south of England who doesn't seem to see the world or hear its sounds or speak and think in the way other children do.

Though they were familiar with each other’s work as actors, Brittany Bradford and Emma Ramos had never met before they were cast in the Old Globe’s world-premiere production of “Alien Girls.” It ...