The hottest “club” on Marquette’s campus is “Horse Girls.”
But, “Horse Girls” is actually a one-hour play student-directed by Mia Figueroa, a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences, and is performed by the Marquette University Players Society — a student-run theatre troupe.
This past weekend, Feb. 21 and 22, “Horse Girls” was performed in Straz Theater and it was one for the books. This play had everything that comes with girlhood, middle school and a little more.
The show was filled with many twists and turns but fulfills that girlhood nature of middle school with lines like “My mom said she can drive us” in response to offering an activity they could do.
The set takes place in a typical middle school girl’s bedroom, filled with trophies from horseback riding, random toy horses placed throughout the room and other childhood memorabilia that will trigger any woman’s nostalgia and make them go, “I’ve been in this room before,” even if they haven’t.
Going into this show, I truly had no expectations. I had no idea what I was in store for or what to expect, but boy, was I pleased.
“Horse Girls,” as best as I can describe it, mixes middle school with “Mean Girls,” “My Little Pony” and “Heathers.”
Six middle school girls hold a club meeting every week, which revolves around horses and horseback riding.
Ash Whitford — played by senior in the College of Arts & Sciences, Eva Hesse — is the president of the club. She leads the group and makes all the rules that everyone must follow if they wish to stay in the club. Her family owns the Lady Jane horse stables where the horses reside, making it known that she has more money than the girls in the club and will not be afraid to mention it.
Tiff Gesuvia — played by junior in the College of Communication, Bailee Barton — is the club’s vice president and has an ongoing rivalry with Ash, even though they claim to be best friends. Marg Flanaghan — played by, junior in the College of Communication, Miranda Croll — is the treasurer of the club, and an aspiring writer.
Robin Gesuvia — played by sophomore in the College of Communication, Rowan Estes — is Tiffany’s little sister and is just happy to be in the club. The three characters who move the plot along in the beginning are: Camille Lowenstein — played by first-year in the College of Communication, Jayne Sullivan —, Trish Lowenstein, Cami’s cousin, — played by senior in the College of Arts & Sciences, Darby O’Shea and Brandi Marshall — played by senior in the College of Health Sciences, Mei Macey.
Cami and Trish arrive at the meeting in Ash’s room, as Trish is an outsider just visiting for the meeting.
Ash immediately becomes skeptical of Trish, who appears visibly out of place. She asks Ash where she should sit — hoping to ease the room’s vibe — and Ash directs her to sit on the children’s rocking chair.
Once Trish becomes comfortable on the rocking chair, she asks, “Should I rock?” with fear behind her voice, and the audible laugh I let out radiated between the theater’s walls.
We were not even 10 minutes into the show, and I knew I was in for a treat.
Once the meeting was entirely in motion, Brandi arrived late, on the verge of tears, interrupting its normalcy. She announced the dreaded news that the stables would be sold, and chaos broke out throughout the room.
Marg starts playing a squeaky recorder in panic, the girls have retreated to their personal corners to let out screeches while tears run down their face, all whilst Trish watches in peaceful confusion, as if she’s saying in her head, “Is this a cult?”
I was taken aback by their reactions at first, but then I realized this is a universal experience for many middle school girls that often takes different forms.
Some girls out there acted like this when they found out Zayn was leaving One Direction, and someone else most likely acted like this when Dobby died in “Harry Potter.” In middle school, every girl has a fixation about which their world revolves around. If one piece of this fixation changes or, worse, could be taken away, it feels like the world is ending.
With this information in mind, it makes sense that the audience was huddled over laughing as these girls had an existential crisis. Don’t be fooled; I was laughing just as hard.
As the girls contemplate how to save their horses, they decide to take a snack break and get ice pops. Ash stays back for a second, asking Tiff for a conversation.
Ash quickly asks Tiff to run away together and to “get out of this town”— another thought every girl has in those dreaded middle school years — on their horses, hoping to save them from turning into horse meat. Tiff seems against it but agrees to offer the idea to the other girls.
The club gathers back in Ash’s room — with blue dye covering their mouths from the ice pops — but silence overcomes the room. Ash pitches the idea that they all run away together, and no one else believes it is a good idea, making practical points of why they should stay.
Being the outsider, Trish attempts to provide a rational outsider perspective to calm Ash down, but in a rage, Ash kills Trish with her horseback riding trophy.
Brandi, aggravated by Ash’s actions, unleashes her true opinions of Ash. She calls her out for not only being a bully but also lying that she kissed an older boy named Jonah—also known as the most scandalous action a middle school girl can take.
Ash has not calmed down in the slightest, and in reaction to Brandi’s words, she aggressively stabs her with the trophy as blood sprays everywhere. Cami and Robin quickly leave the scene, now having witnessed two murders and afraid of what Ash is capable of.
Tiff attempts to calm Ash down once again, but then Marg strangles her from behind, killing her. As Tiff drops to the ground, Marg admits that she has always been in love with Ash, and she is willing to run away with her, and then they kiss each other.
At this point, the rest of the audience and I roared at the edge of their seats, wondering how this plot would resolve. Would they run away together? What about the three murders we just witnessed? How is Cami going to explain to her mother that her cousin was killed at a horse club meeting?
Fortunately, we at least receive an answer to the first question, as Ash tells Marg to leave and not to leave a track of blood, securing her innocence in the situation.
As Ash is the only one left onstage, she begins to sing, “You Will Always Be the One” while dancing around the dead bodies and holding her horseback riding trophy up in the air.
I do not think I could have laughed harder at this show. At some points, I wondered how obnoxious my laugh was and at what point it could be categorized as a cackle. The overall vibes were perfect, making for an ideal way to enjoy some great acting, laugh so hard that tears begin to fall and support your Marquette classmates.
“Horse Girls” even had special guest President Ah Yun in attendance during their Saturday evening show! To learn more Marquette University Players Society, visit their Instagram here or their webpage here.
This story was written by MaryKate Stepchuk. She can be reached at marykate.stepchuk@marquette.edu.
