Review of falcon girls, Yale Repertory Theatre
Adolescence in all its earth-shaking, hormonal change is the setting of Hilary Bettis’s falcon girls, now playing in its world premiere at Yale Repertory Theatre, directed by May Adrales. While such material may be all-too-familiar in popular films and TV shows, Bettis’ compassionate play benefits from the specificity of its context.
The cast of falcon girls by Hilary Bettis at Yale Repertory Theatre; photo by Joan Marcus
The action, set in the early ‘90s, comes to us through the main viewpoint of the new girl in eighth grade in a school in rural Colorado where ranches and horses abound. H (Gabrielle Policano)—always addressed as Hilary and sometimes “Hillary Clinton” in the play—strikes us at first as an early-teen enthusiast utterly entranced by animal life, particularly horses, and eager to share her love with the world (her mother breaks for animals, especially turtles). In the early going, it seems we’re going to be treated to an extended revamp of Mean Girls, as none of the girls on the FFA (Future Farmers of America) competitive team welcomes a new recruit. H gets to be an alternate to an alternate, and spends her time pining for more status and generally dumping on her single-parent mother, Beverlee (Liza Fernandez), a nurse, for always working.
The classroom stuff is all zippy and overwrought as only young teens can be, and the cast is uniformly excellent at bringing the earnest tones of these girls’ voices to life (though we might begin to wonder why anyone, having lived through middle-school, would want to revisit it). Diversity here takes the form of different levels of disfunction: there’s April (Alexa Lopez), a wide-eyed would-be starlet (she wants to go to Hollywood and marry Neal Patrick Harris, har har); Carly (Alyssa Marek), a troubled girl with abusive father; Mary (Anna Roman), a fully indoctrinated proselytizer for Jesus; Rebecca (Annie Abramczyk), whose demanding mom is all about winning no matter what, and Jasmine (Sophia Marcelle, but on opening night played by understudy Gabriela Veciana), a girl who has begun surfing the perilous waters of online chats and phone sex. The girls are fond of stressing that they love each other like sisters and not “like a lesbian.” For a time we might imagine that H is the least burdened, but the second act does away with that view, and suddenly it’s all about the backstory.
H (Gabrielle Policano), Jasmine (Sophia Marcelle), April (Alexa Lopez), Carly (Alyssa Marek), Rebecca (Annie Abramczyk), Mary (Anna Roman) in falcon girls by Hilary Bettis at Yale Repertory Theatre; photo by Joan Marcus
The best part in the early going is when H sassily takes on the role of “horse evaluator” with her teammates as examples. Terms like “pig-eyed” and “breeding hips” get thrown about as the girls strike postures somewhere between artist models, cover girls and science specimen. We get not only the way the features of humans and horses share certain tell-tale aspects, but also that, in her chosen field, H has what it takes. Which doesn’t mean she’s going to be popular. Also made clear is how important the FFA culture is for these teens, leading not only to status, but to enabling careers from veterinarians to ranchers and entrepreneurs.
The cast of falcon girls by Hilary Bettis at Yale Repertory Theatre; photo by Joan Marcus
The consoling rides back home from lost competitions with Mr. K (Teddy Cañez), the patient, dedicated, and virtuous coach, are charming set-pieces that let all the different agendas of this often catty young team play out. Indeed, Cañez’s warm and knowing performance is a welcome break from the various kinds of hyperventilating on view, which includes the crush of the only male teammate, Dan (Juan Sebastián Cruz), on H, which leads him to be a joke mainly for his sartorial choices and his assumption that posing with a gun is the way to a girl’s heart. Cruz is very agile in the dance numbers (Kimiye Corwin, choreographer) that show us what the kids like to step to and how they work off nervous energy.
Bettis’ main theme is the vulnerability of these girls who are restlessly and self-consciously located somewhere on the continuum between children and adults, while trying to navigate their growing awareness that praying to Jesus and trusting in his love may be more panacea than problem-solver. A plot point about a real local girl—Heather Dawn Church—who was kidnapped and killed by a local man (not identified and arrested until four years later) adds a certain element of foreboding, as the darker side of life might find anyone, and Carly is living in the house formerly occupied by the Church family.
H (Gabrielle Policano), Beverlee (Liza Fernandez) in falcon girls by Hilary Bettis at Yale Repertory Theatre; photo by Joan Marcus
The story concerns us with the difficulties faced by teens at all times, and perhaps more so with each passing generation, though I do wonder about the audience for this particular version of teendom. Those who, like Bettis, were teens in the ‘90s (my daughter fits the bill) might run screaming at having to revisit those years, and current teens may be only dimly interested in a time when you had to use call-waiting on landlines to communicate with your friends. As for genial old folks like me, “our withers are unwrung,” so to speak, but, even so, I hear the voice of Alicia Silverstone in Clueless (1995) saying “Tell me that part about Kenny G. again…”
But, unlike Clueless with its lively satire of the Valley and the kids who once upon a time inhabited it, falcon girls doesn’t mock outright the lives of these enterprising kids, trying instead to illuminate aspects of their world for those of us not to the ranches born. Though the biggest lesson we might receive is that the democratic reach of capitalism and its reigning patriarchal discourse means that, in the U.S., life is often a version of “same shit, different State.” Playing at Yale, the play does agreeably promote the value of education, though with the cautionary notion that you might know all there is to know about animal life and nothing at all about yourself.
falcon girls
by Hilary Bettis
Directed by May Adrales
Scenic Designer: Beowulf Boritt; Costume Designer: Micah Ohno; Lighting Designer: Kyle Stamm; Sound Design and Original Music: Joyce Ciesil; Projection Designer: Christian Killada; Hair, Wig, and Makeup Designers: Krystal Balleza and Will Vicari; Production Dramaturgs: Amy Boratko and Lara Priya Sachdeva; Technical Director: Tom Minucci; Fight and Intimacy Director: Kelsey Rainwater; Vocal Coach: Julie Foh; Choreographer: Kimiye Corwin; Casting Director: Calleri Jensen Davis; Stage Manager: Josie Cooper
Cast: Annie Abramczyk, Teddy Cañez, Juan Sebastián Cruz, Liza Fernandez, Alexa Lopez, Sophia Marcelle, Alyssa Marek, Gabrielle Policano, Anna Roman; understudies: Ruth Aguilar, Caroline Campos, Dylan Scarlett Foster, Francisco Morandi Zerpa, Brendan Titley, Gabriela Veciana, Rosie Victoria
Yale Repertory Theatre
October 10-November 2, 2024