Scarlett is at the lowest point in her life, desperately in need of her friends.
Instead, she gets the opposite: rumours are spread, backs are turned and Scarlett’s alienated from a peer group she’s known for 10 years.
That storyline skirts the realms of fiction and reality. Scarlett is the central character in the play Girls Like That. Written by Canadian-British playwright Evan Placey, the play was penned shortly after the high-profile suicide of Port Coquitlam resident Amanda Todd in 2012.
Opening Friday, Nov. 3 at Templeton secondary school, the production explores themes of self-image, friendship and betrayal.
“Stuff like this, maybe to a lesser degree, happens all the time in high school — there’s always girl-on-girl drama and people not being so nice to each other,” said Alison Moreau, a 16-year-old Templeton student who plays the role of Scarlett. “But I can also relate to Scarlett’s strong side that she has, where she learns that she doesn’t have to let these things define her.”
The “thing” in question is a nude photo that rapidly spreads through her school community. Ironically enough, the photo is released while Scarlett’s class is discussing the suffrage movement. How the photo got out, or who released it, is never disclosed.
Instead of rallying around her or offering any semblance of support, Scarlett’s friends take a different tact: they criticize her body, sever ties and engage in “slut shaming.”
“It doesn’t really matter how [the photo] got out, it’s more so about the reaction of people once it does get out,” said director Renée Iace. “She’s really having to deal with it in isolation. There are girls who somewhat sympathize with her character but they don’t say anything.”
Iace works with Shameless Hussy Productions, whose mandate is to tell provocative stories from a female perspective. The production group partnered with Theatre Temp’s Dream Big Production, a long-standing after-school film program at the school, along with Templeton’s Girls in Leadership Club. The cast is made up of 10 girls ranging in age between 14 and 17.
The play offers snapshots of Scarlett’s life at the ages of two, five, eight, 11 and then again in her teenage years. Moreau also takes on the roles of strong, female archetypes from over the last century: a flapper girl from the 1920s, an airline pilot, a flower girl and a powerbroker CEO from the 1980s.
The plot also plays on parallels and paradoxes. When a boy is similarly sexualized over a photo and rumoured sexual conquests, he is celebrated by his contemporaries. As this happens, Scarlett’s support circle continues to dwindle. She eventually moves away from her school and friends to start anew.
Iace grew up before social media was the norm, and is raising a nine-year-old. The play crystallizes the lessons she will have to impart on her daughter in the years ahead.
“It’s a scary world in terms of how to navigate that moving forward,” she said. “When you think about the mistakes that the teenagers make now, it is with you forever. Being open is very big. Communicating what happens online and the dangers of being online needs to be talked through.”
Girls Like That runs Nov. 3 to Nov. 10, 7 p.m. at Templeton secondary. Tickets are $10 at the door or online at eventbrite.com.
jkurucz@vancourier.com
@JohnKurucz
