In MacArthur’s GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS! we meet a rag tag group of pals that will stop at nothing to find their place back on top. Splitz deserved to win. Missy stole first place. Set in the cutthroat world of high school gymnastics, this play follows the Friday-night exploits of four teenage chums as they seek revenge for a loss on the vaulting horse. Come for the high-school trivial drama and scandals, stay for the piercing and heartbreaking emotional reality of this world, these characters, and the state of our youth in society.

Told in a hypnotic, rap-meets-nursery-rhymes style, this play, is brutally violent as it explores what happens when emptiness becomes the norm, the struggle for power and control rules over everyone, and as Peter Hinton says, “in GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS! we feel for the young killers as the inevitable result of a society that both worships and devours its young.”

‘[GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS! is] wondrous, scary and heartbreaking.’ – Montreal Mirror

A British Columbia Premiere, Greg MacArthur’s arresting script is in response to the events surrounding the brutal death of Reena Virk in Victoria, BC, and by the Columbine massacre in Colorado, USA. In this world he has created, we see the characters are on a journey that every youth goes through in one way or another – from powerless child to powerful adult – and as such it is a story that everyone can relate to.

Director, Producer and Artistic Director of Excavation Theatre, Jessica Anne Nelson, is also the winner of the Vancouver Fringe Festival’s Best Site Specific Show Award for her production of Meanwhile, the recipient of a Graduate Support Initiative Award, John Brockington Scholarship in Theatre, and this Fall will be the recipient of the Sydney J. Risk Award in Directing all from UBC as she is one of the current MFA Directing Candidates. She will begin her second year of the program this fall before directing her thesis production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible in the Spring of 2018. Finally, most recently, the production of Ithaka, which she directed and co-produced through Excavation Theatre with dreamofpassion productions, won the best Supporting Actress Jessie Richardson Theatre Award (Small Theatre) for Yoshié Bancroft’s performance as Evie and Pixie.

Joining Nelson as part of the Artistic team includes Riley Davis (Lone Star, Love and Information, Edward II – UBC), Bronwyn Henderson (Les Belles Soeurs, Love and Information, Arabian Nights, The Safe Word – UBC, The Imaginary Invalid – United Players, and was the recipient of the Beatrice Johnson Wood Scholarship in Theatre), Sachi Nisbet (Les Belles Soeurs, Love and Information, Edward II, Arabian Nights, Paper Series – UBC), Demi Pedersen (TITUS! The Light and Delightful Musical Comedy of Titus Andronicus – Awkward Stage Productions, People – United Players, Hell of a Girl – Monster Theatre), and Isabella St Clair (Les Belles Soeurs – UBC, Trout Stanley, Saltwater Moon, A Beautiful View, Mary’s Wedding – Nelson History Theatre, and was the recipient of the Joy Coghill Award in Theatre, and the Evelyn Harden Award). The production also features the talented designs of David Cowling (Sound Design), Alaia Hamer (Costume Design), Vanka Salim (Set and Props Design), and Sara Smith (Lighting Design), as well as Samantha Pawliuk (Stage Manager).

WARNING: NOT EVERY PIECE OF THEATRE IS SUITABLE FOR EVERY AUDIENCE MEMBER. THIS PERFORMANCE CONTAINS SCENES OF VIOLENCE, NUDITY, AND MAY CAUSE EMOTIONAL DISTRESS.