“...Ghanaian American writer Jocelyn Bioh...created a funny but biting play packed with clever laughs that come with a stinging afterburn...It’s heartbreaking, as we watch this beautiful Black woman tear strips off her own skin in a quest to fit a western standard of beauty she cannot hope to meet.”
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“ ‘School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play’ is a refreshing look at teenage girlhood within which there is both sorrow and joy. It’s a fast-paced look at racism and self-image that emphasises some uncomfortable truths about our society...My only criticism of this show is that it was over too soon, and I only hope as many people as possible are able to see this wonderful piece of theatre. ”
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It is to Bioh’s credit that School Girls manages to be both riotously funny and deeply affecting. The entire ensemble cast is brilliant, but particular praise must go to Tara Tijani as Paulina, who manages to be the worst person you ever met in school and the most pitiable at the same time; her use of skin-lightening bleaching cream is one of the show’s most devastating moments. Monique Touko’s direction is slick and accentuates the brilliance of the writing, whilst the transitions are energising and characterful. As for the ending – I can’t spoil it, but I will say that this is a play that will leave you thinking about race for a long time, more so when you know that it is based on what really happened in the Miss Ghana and Miss Universe pageants of 2011. All I can do is urge you to get tickets before this sells out.
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"“This play shows Black women that there is nothing but misery to be found in chasing them – and that there is beauty to be found outside of that: you just need to acknowledge it.”
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“This is an exuberant production that manages to be incredibly fun whilst also highlighting important questions around colourism, racial identity and Eurocentric beauty ideals in a way that isn’t heavy-handed. This show is a tonic, and a joy injection that encourages us to embrace difference – a message, I reckon, we all need to hear right now.”
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The structure is somewhat formulaic, but the 80-minute show leaves us wanting more. In amongst the belly-laughs, serious themes of poverty, racism, and white supremacy unfurl. School Girls is a social comedy-commentary that could easily transfer to the West End or even be the next hit Netflix show
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“Monique Touko’s sparky production deftly skirts sitcom to highlight the applicability of a darker narrative that may be set at a desirable girls’ boarding school in Ghana in 1986 but speaks more widely to the ongoing, ever-desperate desire to fit in, often at considerable cost to one’s sense of self.”
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“ ‘School Girls’ is bursting with sharply funny lines and precision-engineered setpieces...But there’s a bleakness to it, too, as it shows the pain of these girls and woman as they sacrifice themselves for a Western narrative of beauty that they know, deep down, will never embrace them.”
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