GIRLS LIKE THAT (Synergy Theatre/Unicorn Theatre)****

 

By Louise

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx2KDNusk9E

HD Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p1sF0Xtlyk

Available until: Unknown

Girls Like That is a very good play about what school can be like if you’re a girl. The title means ‘girls who behave in a particular way’. The phrase is mentioned a lot during the play. It’s not complimentary.

The play is about a group of girls who met at primary school and then went to secondary school together. It’s mostly about what happened at secondary school, but there are scenes set in primary school too and one set in the future.

It can be really hard being a teenager. If everyone thinks you’re too different from what is seen as ‘normal’, people don’t like you. They don’t invite you to parties. They bully you and tease you. Or they completely ignore you because you’re not worth their attention. If you ever do something silly or get something wrong, it’s texted to everyone and posted on social media so everyone gets to hear about it. People you don’t even know seem to be sniggering at you. It’s hard to know if they’re sniggering because they know or just because you’re you. Or if they’re sniggering about something else because this is one of the days when you don’t exist.

Scarlett is a girl who doesn’t fit in. The girl who isn’t invited anywhere. The girl who is sniggered about. She started school on the same day as the other girls in this play, but they all became friends and she was left out. She doesn’t actually appear in the play or not properly. Sometimes one of the other girls takes on her role or says her lines but there is no actor playing Scarlett. It’s almost like she is so insignificant, she doesn’t even have a physical presence.

But then suddenly she does become significant. A naked photo of her appears and is circulated around the school. Nobody knows who is responsible, but everyone knows it’s there. It’s hard to know how Scarlett is feeling about it at first. She has no-one to confide in – at least not the girls in this play who she’s known since primary school. They talk about her, but they don’t really know her. They don’t know what she’ll do.

I thought it was interesting to see the play from the point of view of six girls who might be seen as bullies. I’m sure it would feel like bullying if you were on the receiving end. The girls gossip. They do say horrible things to and about Scarlett. But at the same time, it’s difficult to dislike them. They do have good qualities. They look out for each other. I really feel in some of the scenes that they do worry about Scarlett sometimes, but they have no idea how to talk to her. So they say something else – something which makes it sound like they’re not worried at all. This made me wonder if some of the horrible girls at my school are like that too. They want to say something, but the only way they know of speaking to some people is to be horrible. That doesn’t make it right, but it does make me think about bullies in a different way.

This play also looks at why boys are different from girls. They shouldn’t be, but there are things they can get away with which girls can’t. The picture of Scarlett makes them think she sleeps with lots of boys and that’s seen as a bad thing. But a picture of a boy gets a completely different reaction. There’s no obvious logic to it and it shouldn’t be true anymore, but it’s hard not to believe it.

This play was made in 2014 and I think things have changed a bit since then. But I’m not sure it’s changed for the better and the basic problems are still the same. If you’re not part of the group, you’re a target. And you really don’t want to put a foot wrong.

The actors in this play are excellent. They portray their characters really well. Everything feels real. It’s almost like I’m at school with them, not watching them in a play. I don’t have a list of who plays which role (and I don’t think the girls have names anyway, apart from Scarlett), but I have found a list of actors – Leona Allen, April Hughes, Shazia Nicholls, Dominique Olowu, Carrie Rock and Danielle Vitalas. They are all very good.