Though this is the era of Spice Girls and Riot Grrrls, playwright Sharman MacDonald explores an era when young women had to be more circumspect about their views and sexuality. When I Was A Girl, I Used To Scream And Shout, currently being staged by Off-Off-Broadway's John Montgomery Theatre, has extended a week, to Sept. 4.

The show opened its NY premiere Aug. 8 and was originally supposed to close Aug. 29, but, according to the Shirley Herz press office, extended "due to overwhelming critical and popular response."

Girl tells of best friends growing up in 1950s-60s Scotland, coping with misconceptions about sex and one girl's repressive mother. Girl, which played at the Bush Theatre in 1984 and the Whitehall in 1996, won a London Evening Standard Award for most promising playwright for MacDonald. The play had its New York premiere Off-Off-Broadway Aug. 8.

Patricia Minskoff directs the drama, which stars Robin Morse (Six Degrees of Separation) and Roberta Maxwell (Lincoln Center's Our Town), alongside Juliet Pritner and Fred Koehler, who played the young boy Chip on TV's "Kate & Allie."

Girl runs at the John Montgomery Theatre, 134 West 26th St., Aug. 5-Sept. 4. For tickets ($12) and information call (212) 627-7076. -- By David Lefkowitz