We all knew a mean girl in high school and the UK premiere of Jocelyn Bioh’s School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play sets audiences’ expectations with this familiar titular reference. As mean girls go, none are more famous than the ‘plastics’, but in Bioh’s heartfelt and razor sharp text ‘mean’ gets a new meaning.
It’s 1986 and a group of school girls await the arrival of the Miss Ghana Pageant recruiter. Popular girl Paulina (Tara Tijani) is in prime place for the crown but when Erika (Anna Shaffer), a beautiful transfer student from America, arrives, Paulina’s queen bee position is put in peril.
Tensions run high and teen tantrums ensue, with hilarity following under Monique Touko’s slick direction.
Colourism bleeds into the story as Erika, paler than the other girls, wins the recruiter’s praise. Deborah Alli’s Miss Eloise is tinged with nostalgia and lost dreams. Eloise won the Ghanaian pageant in her youth but never got a look in on the international stage; she hopes that paler Erika will give her a better chance at finessing a win.
The all-woman cast of eight is superb and each performance is richly individual. The collective noun for schoolgirls is a giggle, and, when the girls are together it’s clear to see why. The pace never falters, with rapid transitions used to infuse comedy.
Tara Tijani’s Paulina is a star turn. Tijani charms and shocks the audience with her vulnerability and meanness, as we learn that, like all mean girls, there’s a story to Paulina’s hard edge.
Alison A Addo as the firm-but-fair headmistress deserves special mention. The headmistress wants the best for her students but sees the unfairness of the world they inhabit.
Despite the historic setting, contextualised with Kinnetia Isidore’s wonderful 1980s costumes, the social commentary is as relevant today as ever. School Girls show us that when you try to change yourself to fit into an unjust system, you can never win.
Ultimately, the mean girls are reformed, and we see that the true mean spirit comes from a world that demands our honest ambitions but sets so many up to fail.
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.
