Review: Fangirls (Adelaide Festival)
Words by Kirsty Kittel
Glittery, funny, and surprisingly confronting take on the teenage experience
Musical
Directed by Paige Rattray
Venue: Adelaide Showgrounds
Length: 2hr 30mins
Why does our society cringe at the image of a teenage girl sobbing at a Shawn Mendez concert, but celebrate a teenage boy exhibiting an equal amount of emotion and hysteria at a footy game as a passionate member of a community, a lover of the sport?
Fangirls: The Musical writer, Yve Blake, splays open this double standard in all its glittery horror through poppy musical numbers, viral dance moves and a dose of teenage angst.
Fangirls is a delightfully kitsch musical; a not-so-subtle wink to that One Direction phase you and your friends went through post-adolescence (sorry, it still counts as a phase if you spent time hating them). Fourteen year-old Edna (Karis Oka) is a misfit scholarship kid at her private school and is growing apart from her two best friends. Edna is also a superfan of Harry, the lead singer of boy band True Connection (befittingly played by 2018 The Voice Finalist, AYDAN). Edna will go to any means necessary to meet him and prove herself as his number one fan.
Unafraid to dip into black humour, Fangirls explores our culture’s ridicule of teenage girls’ interests and how that dismissal can result in toxicity and depression. True Connection resembles a Simon Cowell boy band engineered to target the blooming sexuality of young women and sell them a narrative of finding their other half. This boyfriend-questing fuels gossip: “She crops out her knees from all her photos!” cries Edna’s best friend Jules (Chika Ikogwe) to put down a classmate who got a boyfriend before her. A highlight song is “Disgusting” performed by best friends Jules, Brianna (Shubshri Kandiah) and Edna, a layered rap number that transforms what seemed harmless and comical into a climax of self-hatred.
Fangirls appears to contradict its feminist message, inviting us to laugh at the solipsism of the girls as they point out their miniscule flaws and devote themselves religiously to this paper mache boy band. Yet it’s a participatory lesson, as when the story takes a darker turn, the audience has to question why they were laughing in the first place, facing their complicity in a system that trivialises teenage girls.
Though Fangirls at times leans into superficial girl bossing your way to success, it is not so self-indulgent to present cis-gendered, straight and white teenage girls as the only undervalued population. The song “Feels So True” transports the audience to the depths of an archive of our own internet comment section, where Edna starts an online friendship with fellow fanfic writer and co-conspirator, Saltypringl, a young gay boy in conservative Utah who finds a creative outlet in it. Young audiences will also be able to see themselves represented in a refreshingly diverse cast.
Fangirls is a standout Australian musical, matching up to blockbusters like Matilda and Heathers. With a studio cast recording available for streaming April 16, this show is primed for success not just domestically, but will no doubt charm musical-theatre lovers abroad.
Fangirls is showing as part of the Adelaide Festival at the Ridley Centre, Adelaide Showgrounds until Sunday March 14. Student tickets available through the Adelaide Festival website.
