Fathoming the minds of teenage girls is no small task, but writer-director Joshua Conkel has risen to the challenge with this dark, compassionate satire. Filled with appalling but true-to-life observations and a keen ear for teenspeak, The Chalk Boy reveals what happens to a tightly knit group of high school girls in a small Washington town when a fellow student is murdered in the woods.
Essentially a four-character piece, with the leads sometimes doubling in supporting roles, The Chalk Boy could be accused of Breakfast Club-style reductionism in its use of familiar comic types. There's Trisha and Lauren (Marguerite French and Mary Catherine Donnelly), the mean-spirited goody-goodies of the Christian Athletes Club; Breanna (Kate Huisentruit), an overweight hangdog lesbian in combat fatigues; and Penny (Jennifer Harder), a bleary-looking "bad girl" who dabbles in the occult. (The all-female cast explains the absence of towel-snapping jocks and mouth-breathing geeks with pocket protectors).
Surprisingly enough, these four distinct characters transcend whatever pigeonhole one might be tempted to put them in. Conkel seems to understand that teens do a good job of stereotyping themselves, as high school is partially about deciding what tribe to belong to. His sympathies are clearly with outsiders Penny and Breanna, played with genuine sweetness by Harder and Huisentruit, and although Penny and Breanna's friendship forms the real heart of the play, French brings welcome nuance to her uptight-bitch role, and Donnelly does an amusing turn as Penny's spectacularly wrong-headed mother.
Plot is not this play's strong suit; despite the gruesomeness of the backstory, not much really happens. Although a little more dramatic momentum wouldn't hurt, it's enough that Conkel and the fine ensemble create characters worth caring about and evoke the humor and pathos of high school life without succumbing to camp.
Presented by Horse Trade Theater Group in association with the Management
at Under St. Marks, 94 St. Marks Place, NYC.
Sept. 5-20. Thu.-Sat., 8 p.m.
(212) 868-4444 or www.smarttix.com.