Writer: Jocelyn Bioh
Director: Monique Touko
This theatre production, written by Jocelyn Bioh and first shown in NYC in 2017, is based on the cult classic 2004 film Mean Girls about an American girl, who has been home-schooled in Africa, moving to a suburban North American state school. In this new version, the roles are reversed as a new student from the USA moves to rural Ghana in 1986, where the girls are in cliques and mean. An upcoming heat of an International Beauty competition leads to discussions of weight, skin-lightening and colonial beauty standards.
The play opens with the joyous singing and dancing of the girls at school. It gets the audience immediately in an upbeat mood and is cleverly written in the style of an American sitcom; it really feels as if you are watching a rerun on Comedy Central. The jokes are cruel and hard-hitting and, with the eighties setting and the girls being mean, the audience is soon in stitches.
However, from here on, it starts to feel rather pantomime. There is the obvious villainous ‘Queen Bee’, Paulina (Tara Tijani), ruling over the ‘in’ clique with meanness and spite, especially over her supposed friend Nana, played superbly by Jadesola Odunjo, and the new pupil ‘hero’, light-skinned, straight-haired Erika (Anna Shaffer). The audience knows exactly who is to be booed and who is to be egged on and the end is very predictable
The characters lack depth and there is no room for any nuance in them or in the storyline. The liberal use of the F-word, presumably there to emphasise the heartlessness of the girls, just seems unnecessary. It seems unlikely too that any of these girls would want Paulina as their clique leader or that they would look up to her as she is so dislikeable. Tijani and Shaffer play the parts given well but their charcaters could be more detailed. The only time that the girls are not shouting at one another and throwing expletives is when the two actually sit down after being caught out for different reasons for cheating. They each have a monologue to explain their backgrounds and talk about the hardships they have faced and how each wishes they could be more like the other, but ultimately this conversation remains superficial.
However, some in the audience, especially the younger members, enjoy the play immensely. And the play clearly has things to say about the politics around skin tone and about beauty standards within the community, but ultimately School Girls could be more challenging.
This is personal writing by Bioh. It is understandable why she wrote this in this style and setting but in doing so it only works for a certain audience. If you are a fan of Mean Girls or old US sitcoms there is a lot to like. Despite the examination of serious issues, the play feels out of date and without enough subtlety the jokes land uncomfortably at times. Others give it rapturous applause.
Runs until 15 July 2023
