Horse Girls. The Cell (see Off-Off Broadway). By Jenny Rachel Weiner. Directed by Sarah Krohn. With ensemble cast. Running time: 50mins. No intermission.
Horse Girls: In brief
An adolescent Florida girl is thrown by news that her family's stables are being sold in a dark tween comedy by Jenny Rachel Weiner. Sarah Krohn directs the NYC premiere.
Horse Girls: Theater review by Jenna Scherer
Few human beings are more fearsome than a spoiled middle-school girl. Jenny Rachel Weiner takes this premise and canters it in this dark comedy. She aptly captures the obsessive, social-strata–plagued mind-set of the preteen in the Lady Jean Ladies, a club that convenes in the pink and white bedroom of queen bee Ashleigh (Olivia Macklin). The girls love horseback riding the way John Hinckley Jr. loves Jodie Foster, with an adoration so ardent that you fear for your life. ("I've always said when Han Solo dies, I will wear his skin so we are one," one of the Lady Jean Ladies declares of her steed.)
Everything is dialed up to 11 in Krohn's production, the excellent cast operating at a stylized, Heathers-esque pitch of budding hormones and hurt feelings. Weiner's stylized script is hilarious and weird, albeit filled with crazy turns that don't feel earned and an abrupt ending. At a brisk 50 minutes, Horse Girls comes off as either a comedy sketch that's too long or a play that's too short. I, for one, would really love to see the rest.—Theater review by Jenna Scherer