←Recommendations of Truth/Dare

Powerful. Captivated all the way.

Truth/Dare is funny, honest, painful, and haunting. All four central characters have compelling personalities and unique voices, and the way the desires, yearning for friendship, and identities of each girl collide with one another is believable and at times heartbreaking. Keenan-Zelt uses fluidity of time to unique theatrical effect. Time play in this piece serves to build tension, reveal information, and explore the lasting trauma and regret of grief. This would be an excellent vehicle for four (or seven!) young women to dive into complex and well-written roles that honor the complexity and humanity of adolescence.

A beautiful, funny, and haunting coming-of-age story.

Keenan-Zelt's "Truth/Dare" is almost two plays at once: one riveting play about the awkwardness of growing up, another about how to grieve and carry on after tragedy and growing apart from close friends. However, she binds these two themes together seamlessly, creating a wonderful drama that brings laughter and tears.

In "Truth/Dare," Tori Keenan-Zelt draws us back to middle school... that awful, awkward time....when we didn't know who we were, didn't know how to think for ourselves, and when we relied on others close to us in an effort to figure it all out. She cleverly begins the play with an urban legend, which frames the girls' search for truth in their own lives; illustrating how the details of a tragic incident in their past can be processed/internalized/reconciled differently, as the story of the event takes on a life of its own. Powerful. Truthful. Daring.

With TRUTH DARE, Tori has written a beautiful, haunting, and true play about one of the most fascinating and intense relationships that can exist: the relationship between teenage girls. Not only does she examine this with aplomb, she delves into the complicated nature of grief, guilt, and belief. A great play that should have a long life off the page.

What was compelling for me was not just the realistic depiction of the anxieties of the girls, but also the doubts and fears that result from grieving a classmate. For the three surviving young women, there’s a nice slow build to reveal how they’ve all been dealing with that grief in high school. The character of Linney is a fresh voice that I rarely see depicted on stage. And for educators, who are always searching to find plays with roles for their student actresses, give this one a look, it's enjoyable and demands to be staged.

Not only one of my favorite titles of a play in quite some time, but is overall heartbreakingly awesome. Fantastic piece that still resonates with me months after reading it.