<b>THE EARLY GIRL</b> Compass Performing Arts Center/The Brazen-Faced Varlets SpeakupWNY | Buffalo NY and Buffalo News

Through May 25
THE EARLY GIRL Compass Performing Arts Center/The Brazen-Faced Varlets

Think about it: How often have you heard someone refer to their co-workers as a �Family?�
Actually, that work family might be less dysfunctional than some blood families I have known.
At least, the boss might fire some of the worst offenders.
Can you fire a relative?
That�s really what Caroline Kava�s �The Early Girl� is all about.
It�s just that the family she�s writing about is the �working girls� in a brothel in some mining town out West.
Kava skips many details of what the employees and �madam� Lana (Maria Costa) do during their work hours, although the S&M tools displayed offer some clues.
We also never see the clients, although we do, occasionally, hear them.
That�s where �the early girl,� comes from, the worker who comes in for clients who want to be serviced before 6 p.m.
Maybe to give them time to get home to a family dinner.
The story revolves around Lily (Kai Crumley) who has just signed up for this line of work, to support a new baby.
We see her shift from an enthusiastic newcomer to a �burnout� as she looks for another way to support the infant.
At the end, we meet Sally (Isabel Deschamps), Lily�s successor.
This all takes place in what must be the employee break room.
Lana has production bonuses and quotas and even ranking of the workers.
Laurel (Emrald Ja�ceil) is the Number One �girl.�
Between customers, she�s working on Stephen King novels.
You can see Lily disintegrating as time goes along, before leaving.
It doesn�t seem as if most of the sex workers have steady clients.
However, George (Vanessa Vacanti) has one steady gig, a married assistant DA.
The conflicts of interest on his side are startling, even in this time, since prostitution is almost certainly illegal in whatever state the operation is supposed to be.
While the workplace here is definitely unusual, most of the tensions are not uncommon.
I�ve worked for clueless bosses like Lana.
Most of us have.
Although, few of them were morally clueless.
�The Early Girl� is a fascinating look at a workplace, a very different workplace.
Director Leyla Gentil-Rosado has the cast needed to make this story work, particularly Crumley, Ja�ceil, Vacanti and Costa.
Set designer Heather Fangsrud gives us that mish-mash of furniture so common in breakrooms and makes the constant human traffic in-and-out workable on stage.
�The Early Girl� is an interesting look at how standard office tension can show in a very non-standard workplace.

A.W.