"Impeccably directed...The script’s weakness is in Ms. Peiffer’s tendency to finish scenes with lines that feel like flourishes. She undermines the play’s ending with a similar lack of subtlety...Without a lead as bold, moving and full-on funny as Francis, in a production less accomplished than Rafaeli’s, those quibbles would matter more. But in its world premiere, 'Usual Girls' is exciting to watch. With hilarity and grimness, it connects the dots between pleasure, pain and shame."
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"Peiffer's uncompromising exploration of a Korean-American girl's sexual evolution delivers multiple punches to the gut—and a few that land a bit lower. Caught at the intersection of misogyny and racism, Kyeoung battles prejudice and preconceptions in a series of unnerving vignettes..Director Rafaeli elicits raw performances from her fearless, mostly female cast...'Usual Girls' is a primal scream of a play that wants to make you squirm, and it succeeds."
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"It’s a gutsy, vulnerable piece of writing and part of what feels like an immensely heartening wave of intelligent, compassionate, unafraid-to-get-ugly plays that give us vital new portraits of the artists — as young women...The play is both spiky and joyous, and Kyeoung’s story is no tragedy, no maudlin serving of misery porn. The presence of the Woman results in a portrait that puts the ugly and the wondrous together in the frame."
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"The play doesn't fully succeed in its shifts from exaggerated comedy to scorching drama...Too much of the time, especially in the scenes concerning the girls in the early years, the play has the feel of an X-rated 'Saturday Night Live' sketch, more parodistic than illuminating. But the evening also features many powerfully resonant moments. That it touches a chord with audience members, especially women, was made evident by the emotional reactions frequently audible."
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“Peiffer's no-holds-barred coming-of-age play, directed with just as much daring by Rafaeli...Peiffer's play is unapologetically for and about ‘all the others’, and while the story skews painfully dark, it's all painfully true...Few plays so astutely capture the fragility and mutability of the female identity...You'd be hard-pressed to find any warm-and-fuzzy moments mixed into Peiffer's coming-of-age story...As nice as that would be, it doesn't happen for ‘Usual Girls’.”
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"The constant looming of men as dark forces in 'Usual Girls,' without a single mitigating factor mentioned on behalf of the gender is the play’s biggest flaw, possibly betraying its young author’s zeal to drive her points about the patriarchy home as starkly as possible. But Peiffer and director Tyne Rafaeli also show sophistication and boldness in acknowledging other factors that can encourage women against their own self-interest and each other’s."
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“What keeps this play from being a downer is Peiffer’s ear for dialogue, much of it laugh-out-loud funny and the performances lead by Francis’ portrayal of Kyeoung...The rest of the cast is terrific too...With the exception of the racist remarks, Kyeoung’s story could be that of any middle-class girl growing up in Middle America...And that’s the whole point. Korean-Americans aren’t exotic or obsessed with being other; they’re just people and it’s gratifying to see them portrayed that way onstage."
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"I cannot recall a sharper articulation of an idea—here, rape culture—through story and character than what Ms. Peiffer achieves with her play...A raw and honest look at life through the perspective of a young girl—this time with the added dimension of race...Rafaeli elicits a bevy of commanding performances from the nine member ensemble cast—at times humorous, but more often heartbreaking and even horrific...This is a bold and important new play."
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