Brutal
Length: 90 min, 1 act
Cast: 7F (scroll below for character breakdown)
CW: Language, Alcohol, Sexual Harassment, Mental Illness
Six girls get together after months of masks and social distancing for a COVID Halloween party in 2020. What starts out as a night for pictures, rants about school, and stories about driver’s ed soon takes an unexpected turn as tensions build and secrets are revealed. When Rory’s sister, Beck, insists on having other people over despite Rory’s protests, the growing cracks in their relationship become impossible to hide. The girls all idolize Beck, the gorgeous valedictorian, except for Bridge, who hates the way that Beck treats her best friend. What happens when the girl you’ve looked up to for years, who you thought was perfect, turns out to be just another flawed, even mean, person? When one truth comes out, others are sure to follow. And the pizza still has not arrived.
Cast of Characters
Why Now?
For all the power that men, or politicians, or multi-millionaires have in our world, teenage girls certainly give them all a run for their money. Whatever teenage girls decide should be important and deserves attention will become so. Take The Beatles, or Twilight, or Taylor Swift, or a thousand other examples. Teenage girls have the power to affect our culture and to define the very eras they grow up in. For all of this, they have been largely reduced to silly, whiny, stupid little girls with nothing very important to say. They’re catty, image-obsessed, and loud. Brutal is a celebration of teenage girls; whiny, silly, jealous, persuasive, and intelligent. Complicated and culture-defining. Full of love and hope, and only just beginning to understand how little the world will love them back.