After a very successful premiere last year, MCC Theater has reprised Jocelyn Bioh’s play, School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play. The title informs the premise. At the Aburi Girls Boarding School in Ghana, Paulina (Maameyaa Boafo) is the alpha. She has friends who tolerate her abuse to be part of her circle. Not exactly the most unique scenario but the location choice makes the formula seem fresher. Paulina tells Nana (Abena Mensah-Bonsu) she looks like a cow and needs to stop eating. Paulina knows best. She is certain that she will be selected to compete in this year’s Miss Ghana 1986 pageant as she is clearly the most beautiful girl – and delights in telling everyone within earshot.
Who will be selected to represent this school in the beauty pageant is the train that guides the plot. The stops along the way to get to know these young ladies are the real fun. A new girl is introduced into the mix having just moved from the United States to her father’s home country. Will she be adopted into the clique or become a ferocious alpha herself? The laughs are plenty in this gleeful situation comedy before things get mean. Or should I say meaner?
Paulina wants to win badly. All the other girls are competing but only new arrival Ericka (Joanna A. Jones) seems to have a realistic chance. When the pageant recruiter arrives (herself a Miss Ghana 1966), the fangs emerge. When our alpha girls finally sit down and retract their claws, there is an overlong scene which turns this play into a hokey afterschool special with dramatic revelations and personality swings which are not believable. Thankfully, the scene ends and we get back on track.
School Girls is also about the things school age girls think about. Boys. Makeup. College. Dresses. Friendships. Marriage. Peer pressure. At the end of this exceptionally well-acted play, there is a deeper message. Meanness also comes from the competitive nature of who is better than whom and why. And in whose opinion? What does beauty mean? What actions does society wittingly or unwittingly proffer upon young females as they develop themselves for life?
Laughs are plentiful in School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play. As are slights much bigger than name calling. Those indignities that are more systemic and long lasting is where true meanness lurks. We laugh because we recognize it. We cringe because we recognize it. We face it because we need to move forward generation by generation.