Girls Who Think They're Hot

Courtesy of Lumina Studio Theatre

Fringe review: 'Girls Who Think They're Hot'
By Erin Williams
Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Lumina Studio Theatre channels Fringe Festival fun by bringing the art form of surrealism to the stage in “Girls Who Think They’re Hot.”

We are taken to the 1950s by a Rod Serling-esque narrator and introduced to Poppy Topp, a smiling teen (who is played by a real teen, Clare Lefebure) whose joys lie in the ’50s ideals of home economics and being asked to the dance by the star football player.

A loud, Hawaiian-shirted girl, Skrunk, comes on the scene and declares that she is, indeed, hot, and if you’re game enough to come back to her art-filled den, you can be too. We later learn she’s part of a scam to push the so-thought of drug of surrealism on unsuspecting kids, but for now, Poppy begins to take an interest.

Between scenes -- changed out by actors wearing dark coats, hats and green masks reminiscent of Rene Magritte’s “The Son of Man” -- we see Poppy begin to take a liking to Skrunk’s ways, which include trying to dig a tunnel to China with a spoon. She eventually visits the equivalent of an art drug den, where Salvador Dali books abound and masked dancing ensues, and Poppy is hooked -- only to realize later that it’s all been a mind game.

A visit to the guidance counselor staged by her “frantic” parents only makes things worse, and a mock shootout (assisted by a weapon that is later revealed to be a banana) finally brings truth to what we’ve known all along: Life is what you paint it to be, and no parent or apple or any other fruit is to say you’re wrong.