This Is Not Your Average All-Girls Summer Camp
The Lost Girls is a truly rare production that has you laughing your heart out and thinking about some of the world’s most pressing ideological concerns at the same time: sexuality, feminism, and privilege. Running from October 28th to November 19th at Annex Theater in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, this is a production that will do anything (and everything) but disappoint.
The setting of the play is at Camp Explorequest, an all-girls summer camp, but one soon discovers that these females are not the stereotypical sort to be sitting around in a circle, holding hands and singing kumbaya. Riddled with college debt and pessimistic about the meaning of life, the queer camp counselors challenge the notion that college leaves a young adult feeling ready to handle the world. The campers? Well, they are randomly disappearing into the clutches of some sort of maniacal lake monster—never to be seen again.
The all-women cast is unapologetic, feisty, brazen, and genuine—both in their acting and seemingly in their own lives. Annex Theater selected female actors who thankfully cannot be classified as Hollywood-style perfection, but as real women of varying shapes and sizes, of different cultural backgrounds, and of diverse ethnicities. This is a refreshing change to the theater industry and I hope to see more plays follow in suit to Annex Theater’s shining example.
Arguably, the greatest strength of this play is its willingness to confront the topics of feminism, sexuality, and privilege head on. Annex Theater recognizes that it is time for the world to bring these concepts to the forefront of social discussion and enough applause cannot be given for their valiant efforts.
Rosa, played by Alysha Curry, performs hilarious, dry monologues about the history of oppression that afterwards leave the audience gasping for breath, yet still cognizant of the greater ideological issues at hand. Misti, played by Shermona Mitchell, balances this sort of humor with an unparalleled level of witty sass that will equally have you laughing so hard you have tears coming out of your eyes. Although no acting job could be classified as subpar in this production, the start of the show is arguably Donny, played by Jordi Montes. Donny tackles the topics of consent, being queer, and sexual orientation with natural ease and wicked humor.
Lost Girls has it all—humor, wit, sass, and class. The title is The Lost Girls, but you will find you have actually found and connected with a deeper part of yourself after watching this play. It relates to the rawest of human emotions through a carefully balanced mixture of laughter and logic and simply cannot, under no circumstances, be missed.
Lost GirlsAnnex Theatre.1100 E. Pike St. Capitol Hill, Pike/Pine, (Corner of 11th Ave. & E. Pike St) Fri, Sat. 7:30 pm. Mon Nov. 3 & Thurs Nov. 7th 7:30 Pay-what you Can. thru Nov. 19. Tickets: http://www.annextheatre.org/. ( Park at your own Peril)