If you did not get a chance to see “Some Girl(s)” last week, you missed out on a fantastic Catawba College production. Student directed by senior Lara Williams, the show tells the story of Guy, played by Matthew Ensley, a writer who travels the United States in search of reconciliation with his numerous ex-girlfriends. Guy and each of his ex-girlfriends are representative of the different love styles—eros, ludus, storge, pragma, mania, and agape. Each scene was also dressed to represent these love styles, as were the characters involved.
For many audience members, “Some Girl(s)” was an emotional rollercoaster. In fact, some viewers even began their crying at the end of the very first scene, when Ashley O’Donnell’s character, Guy’s high school sweetheart Sam, admits that she is torn by his reappearance and begins to cry herself. Luckily, the tone of the second scene was a bit more lighthearted, so the audience was able to recover and laugh a bit at Verity Prior-Harden’s performance as Tyler, a fun-loving and sexy young woman he had a brief fling with in Chicago. The third scene in the show took a serious turn with Chelsea Retalic playing Lindsay, a college professor Guy had an affair with who is angry about him leaving her to clean up their mess when her husband found out about their relationship.
During intermission, everyone in the audience took a deep breath. Already, the show was a lot to take in. What else could this Guy character have done?
The fourth scene centers around Reggie, a character that had not been included in the original play, but was added to the movie version and kept for this production. Reggie, played by Summer Eubanks, is much younger than guy, and their story was the second most shocking in the play. Reggie is Guy’s high school buddy’s sister, and once, one the eve of her twelfth birthday, Guy kissed her and touched her in a way that she did not grow to appreciate.
The most shocking scene in Some Girl(s) was the final scene in which Katlyn Shaw’s character, Bobbi, meets with Guy and gives it to him straight. In this scene, the audience discovers that Guy has been recording each and every conversation he has had with these women with a microphone under his shirt. But he still proclaims his love for Bobbi and seems to have the realization that he should have stayed with her instead of running away and having a relationship with Tyler in Chicago. Shaw’s character does not fall for it and walks away before he can disappoint her further. By this time, almost everyone is crying in the audience, and even some of the backstage crew who have seen the show multiple times.
One aspect of “Some Girl(s)” that made it a unique and thrilling experience was the incorporation of choreographed dance/scene changes using music to represent each newly introduced ex-girlfriend. Before the curtain call, there was a culminating dance number to Ed Sheeran’s song, “Give Me Love,” which pretty much summed up the audiences emotions throughout and made for a perfect ending to a perfect play.
