Review - School Girls; or The African Mean Girls Play (and a little extra at the end)

I have been kicking myself for missing the original production of Jocelyn Bioh's play School Girls; or The African Mean Girls Play last year.  I heard wonderful things about it and I always try to see as many new plays as possible.  Though, since I don't have a time-turner or a trust fund, I can't make it to everything.  I'm so glad that the play is receiving a return engagement!  As soon as tickets went on sale for this run, I rushed in with my credit card.  I didn't want to make the same mistake twice.

Bioh's play won several awards last year, including an award from my company, so I actually got to read the play last spring and loved it.  But I've been eager to see it fully realized on stage - and may I say I was not disappointed in the least!  Sometimes, when you have high expectations and have waited a long time to see something, the final result can't live up to your dreams.  Well, School Girls absolutely was everything I had hoped for.

The show takes place in a girls school in 1986 Ghana.  It concerns a group of girls who are looking forward to the upcoming Miss Ghana pageant and who will be the school's representative at this year's pageant.  The play is so fast and so funny, with charmingly realistic characters and fabulous dialogue.  Paulina (played by the incredible Maameyaa Boafo) is the clear leader of the group; she bullies and ridicules, and think she knows everything (she has relatives in America, and her description of White Castle is fall-down funny), but she is such a force, and so charming, no one can help but follow her.  She knows she is the obvious choice to represent her school at the Miss Ghana pageant and she knows it is her way out.  But when a new student arrives and challenges her status quo, the play shifts.  The way Boafo grows and expands her performance throughout is really fantastic.  You think you know Paulina, but we find out we really don't.  It can't be easy to be an ingenue and a villain at the same time, but Boafo walks that tightrope beautifully.

photo credit: Craig Schwartz

Really, all of the acting is absolutely superb.  The play may be under 90 minutes, but I feel as if I know all of these girls intimately and I enjoyed spending time, and learning so much, in their presence.  A huge shout-out to the entire ensemble:  Latoya Edwards, Paige Gilbert, Joanna A. Jones, Abena Mensah-Bonsu, Mirirai Sithole, Myra Lucretia Taylor, and Zenzi Williams (and the abovementioned Maameyaa Boafo).  Bioh has beautifully written these characters with great specificity, yet with great universality.  And she is teaching us something as well, about self-hatred, internalized racism, female bonding, and so much more.

I'm ready for a return trip to School Girls - I found so much to admire and enjoy, and just had the best time; I'd love to experience it again.  I really look forward to what Jocelyn Bioh brings us next.  You know, I've also seen Bioh perform (she was amazing in Suzan-Lori Parks' In the Blood and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Everybody, among other things) and, like her acting, her writing is so rich in characterization and dialogue, she's just one of those people who can do it all!

To close, I've also seen two other shows recently that I'd like to recommend:  The Thanksgiving Play, by Larissa FastHorse, now at Playwrights Horizons; and Fireflies, by Donja R. Love, at the Atlantic Theatre Company.  I saw both of them during a flurry of work and I just couldn't wrap my brain around coherent reviews of them.  Sorry about that.  But I highly recommend your seeing them both - they're funny, touching, surprising, and told me stories that I haven't seen before.  You probably haven't seen these stories either.  Both productions are very well-produced and well-acted, and both writers are people you should know and follow.  Please.  Go.