I Think I Like Girls

This play about lesbianism, like The Vagina Monologues and Another American: Asking and Telling, is based on actual interviews. Leigh Fondakowski, the playwright, talked to something like 77 women about sexual alienation and coming out, and five young actors from Encore Theater Company present the results as a fictionalized documentary. For some reason this real-interview style only seems to work for politicized gender topics -- homosexuality, vaginas -- and in a few years maybe young theater companies will make fun of its home-grown earnestness. For now, though, the form still works, and I Think I Like Girls feels fresh. It starts with a woman sitting on a stool, in a sweater, with her arms crossed and her mouth pursed in a bitter smile. A younger-seeming woman aims a camera, and we see the same image on a screen. "This is my mom," says the interviewer. Poor Mom proceeds to get grilled about how she's raised her lesbian child. The rest of the show tells a slew of stories about parents, clothing, school, and gender roles. Some segments are funny and free, especially Amy Resnick's portrayal of six wildly different women, Kelli Simpkins' bit about shop class, and Megan Spooner's speech as a confused teenager; others amount to advanced navel-gazing, and argue for self-love where none (in the theater) contendeth.