Anorexic comedy opens at BPP

"Schoolgirl Figure" opened at the Bloomington Playwrights Project on Friday the 13th. Written by Wendy MacLeod, the play tells the story of a bunch of pathetic high school girls competing to be the thinnest girl. The competition follows the idea that thin is beautiful, and through this, they all hope to win the masculine favor of the school's star athlete called The Bradley.\nThe curtain rose on the BPP's badly ventilated Black Box theatre to reveal an almost full house. The audience was mixed in its composition of Bloomington residents and members of the IU campus.\nSeniors Anne Acker and Lyndsey Anderson played the two lead roles, and they lead with excellent stage presence, timing and delivery that enabled them to pull laughter from a crowd watching something so macabre. \nI took particular delight in the way Anderson (Renee) delivered lines saying Marilyn Monroe was "jell-o on springs," and in the way she forced her compatriot, Acker (Patty) to wheel her around everywhere as she was too weak from lack of food to do it herself. \nIn one scene Renee schemes with Patty to get a ham from a grocery store to take to the funeral reception of a fallen friend. Such antics as this made me laugh. In another scene where Patty and Renee are trying to sabotage a competitor, Renee says a line prompting Patty to say "You're smart, scheming, and evil."\nThe fallen friend of Patty and Renee is named Monique, who succumbs to anorexia. Monique is a bit part played by sophomore Tenaya Hurst, who plays several other characters in the show. One other character is the mother of Monique torn with grief over the loss of her daughter. Hurst played Monique's mom sadly. \nRick Fonte did a nice job in his direction. The show progressed at a good speed. But Fonte is also listed as being responsible for the so-called "Original Music."\nIn this case, the original music was supposed to be the incidental, overhead stuff that facilitated scene changes since there wasn't a curtain, but the music was so loud that it was anything but incidental. \nAnd it was "original" in that it was the first time the BPP used such badly edited music "borrowed" from recent pop group hits. Don't get me wrong, I liked the music of these groups. It's just that the music did nothing for the show, and even less for people with hearing aids.\nAll in all, this show is a fresh and humorous way to look at and try to understand the minds of those with eating disorders. Seeing it would bring laughter from something so unlaughable.\n"Schoolgirl Figure" will run at the Bloomington Playwrights Project, 312 Washington St., until September 29th. Show times are 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 2pm Sundays. Ticket prices are $15 for adults, and $12 for students/seniors. For reservations call 355-9001.