Typical Girls was a refreshing theatrical experience for me after a long absence from watching theatre due to covid. Seeing songs performed live as a band was, for the most part, great! It tells the story of convicted women who each find themselves through learning a musical instrument and becoming a band. The play takes on a Brechtian style with multiple freeze frames where a character starts monologuing about a topic which hints a lot at their backstory and in some instances, directly describes their past which was really good to see as I'm a big fan of Brecht and his style.
However, there were a lot of issues I had with the story. While I enjoy the use of the freeze frame shots, they were definitely used way too often to the point where I would lose interest when a character was monologuing. The lead singer was more or less shouting words rather than using her voice to sing which I guess was kind of the point?? But the songs towards the end should've showcased the characters' improvements over the course of the story. The ending where *SPOILERS* the music teacher the inmates had was revealed to be fired from her job due to have her own personal issues, almost parallelling the inmates baggage they show throughout the play, cancelling planned gig all the inmates were looking forward to doing but then the play ends in a strange way, where one of the inmates breaks the fourth wall and essentially explains the themes of the play and says in some hypothetical world, they still perform their gig and so they play some songs and it ends.
What they were trying to do just didn't work for me just in the way it was presented and how there were no more scenes after the 'plot twist' was revealed that came out of nowhere with not enough prior build up. All in all, the play showed a lot of promise but ultimately got too ahead of itself and shot itself in the foot with it's execution in what could've been an amazing theatre experience.
The Company of Typical Girls. Photo by Helen Murray
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