Douglas gets provocative with The Early Girl

Douglas students Caillie Wallace and Diva Gould star in The Early Girl.

Take a closer look at something you probably thought you'd never see: the inside of a small-town American brothel. This month, the Douglas College Studio Theatre is transformed into exactly that for the Theatre and Stagecraft departments' production of Caroline Kava's The Early Girl.

The Early Girl, running November 7-15, takes a straightforward and unsentimental look at the sex trade and the women who work in it. It tells the story of seven women who work thirteen-hour days in a brothel in a small American town in the 1980s. But rather than sensationalizing the lifestyle, The Early Girl takes a deeper look at the individual women and the circumstances that brought them there.

"We thought the characters would be a good stretch for the cast. It's a very challenging ensemble piece," says director Cheryl Swan on why the Theatre department chose the play (warning: Coarse language and adult content).

"We also needed a play with lots of women!" she laughs. "We've got a lot of women in the program."

As the story unfolds, the characters deal with the reality of living and working in close quarters, with some interesting and often hilarious results.

"It's a comedy-drama," says Swan. "It's surprisingly funny."

Swan points out that despite the humorous characters and the provocative subject matter, The Early Girl has an important message for its audience.

It provides a glimpse into a side of the sex trade that many people often overlook or over-generalize - the women.

"The play asks difficult questions about the role of prostitution in society, the commercialization of sexuality, and our capacity to denigrate and devalue these women as less worthy of the benefits and protections of society than the rest of us."

Swan realizes the subject matter of the play may raise some tough questions for audience members. So, the cast has planned two talk-back performances, on November 10 and 15, where the audience can ask questions of the cast and crew after the show. Tickets for these performances are half price.

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