STAGE WEST: "Alien Girls" at the Old Globe

Emma Ramos (left) and Brittany Bradford in "Alien Girls."                                     Photo by Rich Soublet II

            Who are the aliens in Amy Berryman’s “Alien Girls”? As her thoughtful one-act dramedy at the Old Globe implies, there’s more than one answer.
            At its core, “Alien Girls,” which grew out of the Globe’s Powers New Voices Festival (and was developed in part with Center Theatre Group’s LA Writers Workshop), is about the deep and sometimes fractured friendship between two creative-minded women, Tiffany (Brittany Bradford) and Carolyn (Emma Ramos). The play directed by Jaki Bradley, who also directed the New Voices reading a year ago, flits back and forth in time, from the college years in which the two women meet to a reckoning at the end that determines the fate of their friendship.
            The tightest bond between the two is their shared passion for writing, but this does not necessarily ensure equilibrium. Artistic jealousy and insecurity intrude. Resentment, too, when Tiffany reveals to the friend who was briefly her lover as well that she is pregnant. Carolyn is unable to (or refuses to) understand how that could now be more important to Tiffany than the collaborative writing they’ve been doing together or to Tiffany’s creative muse.
            When Carolyn has published in The New Yorker an essay questioning her friend’s priorities, the dam breaks. Tiffany feels betrayed, and resurrected at the same time is what Carolyn swears was a betrayal of her by her friend – outing her sexuality in front of her mother, who was dying.
            Heavy going as all this is, “Alien Girls” is buoyant with Berryman’s bright, adult brand of humor. Just as important to making the story work is the onstage rapport between Bradford and Ramos, who are easy to buy as BFFs, and we all know that even the best friends have their difficulties with each other.
            Ramos generates most of the comedy inherent in the play, often in simply reacting. Bradford’s character is ostensibly the more serious of the two, but shares Ramos’ sometimes-childlike sense of silliness and irreverence when the script calls for it.
            Karina Curet plays multiple parts during “Alien Girls” and scores with each of them. Most memorable is her superficial bride-to-be who is a mutual friend of Tiffany and Carolyn, and a self-serious, snooty editor from The New Yorker.
            Berryman has employed a device that I have seen onstage before – the meta self-editing of the story as it goes along. Here, Bradford and/or Ramos will, with a “DELETE!” re-do a moment or a line. This suggests that what we’re watching is a script being written by one of the women, or both -- editing as they go along because friendship in all its facets needs editing.
            The storytelling jumps the shark with the arrival of the alien creatures (puppets designed by Helen Q. Huang) that are characters in the young adult book Tiffany has written. They also represent something more, clearly. But the addition of these extraterrestrials, to me, is a contrivance and unneeded.
            Atmospherically there’s a spacey feel to “Alien Girls,” even without the puppets. Jason Sherwood’s scenic design, Rui Rita’s lighting, and sound effects from Sinan Refik Zafar combine to create an otherworld and do so without distracting from the interpersonal drama onstage.
            Among the settings listed in the program for “Alien Girls” is “another planet.”
            Mission accomplished.
            “Alien Girls” runs through May 10 at the Old Globe’s Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre in Balboa Park.