Play #29 -- School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play, Portland Center Stage, January 25

Our third PCS show of the season was a challenging satire written by a playwright from Ghana.  To me it felt like a cross between Mean Girls and School Daze (a Spike Lee Joint), as it focused on the Miss Ghana pageant, perceptions of beauty, and the relative perceived value of light/dark skin.  I was really looking forward to it, and very much wanted to like it, but it didn't quite grab me emotionally.  Perhaps I wasn't the intended audience (male, white).  Probably so, given the lively audience reaction that many of the jokes and snappy, biting lines elicited.

Or perhaps I had just seen too many plays over the past few months...

https://www.pcs.org/schoolgirls/