OF TECH & TRAUMA
Play tackles sexual assault, friendship and the negative side of social media
It started as a desire to write a play that would focus on young women and explore their perspective on everything from friendship to vegan cheese. Five years later, and on the eve of its debut, Tell Us What Happened has become a charged examination of sexual assault in the age of social media.
Written by local actor and dancer Michelle Robb, the play runs May 11 to 22 in Workshop West's new space The Gateway Theatre.
It's the result of a years-long collaboration between Robb and Workshop West artistic producer Heather Inglis, who directs and is the dramaturge for the play. Inglis approached Robb about working together after the two met during a young playwrights program at the Citadel Theatre, where the story began its life.
Tell Us What Happened went on to co-win the 2020 Alberta Playwriting Competition's Novitiate prize. The production was three weeks from the start of rehearsals in March 2020 when the world shut down.
“That was sad, but we got over it and it was all meant to be,” says Robb, reflecting on the play's trajectory. “And here we are now.”
Tell Us What Happened features a cast of four women and one man. It opens with the revelation by a 17-year-old university student, Leah, that she has been sexually assaulted after a party by a male student five years her senior. The revelation comes in a post to a secret online group called Tell Us What Happened. Several other young women post that they, too, have had a similar experience with the same man.
The online group, made up of 400 participants, was formed by Charlie, who set it up several years earlier in response to her own trauma. Following Leah's allegations, friendships are rocked when it looks like Charlie's close friend, Josh, is responsible.
“One of the things explored in the show is the difference between talking about something online versus saying something to someone's face,” says Robb, 25, in a phone call squeezed in amid a hectic rehearsal schedule. “It's really easy to talk about this guy as if he is a monster, but when Charlie has to confront her friend, it's a totally different ball game.”
The show tackles myriad difficult issues, including what happens when young women become overly attached to internet platforms including Instagram, Facebook and Tiktok. One character in particular is finding it difficult to pursue her life outside in the off-line world.
“Any time young women are defining their purpose through the internet, I find that worrisome,” says Robb, a recent graduate of the University of Alberta's acting program, who marks her professional writing debut with this work.
“It's probably got some negatives with regard to mental health. So much about being healthy is about living in the present moment, and so much about scrolling your phone is living in the past.”
The play offers a glimpse inside the world of women entering their 20s, with all the pressure and potential that entails.
It tackles weighty subjects such as the danger of excessive drinking, which increases personal vulnerability in a world still struggling with a widespread misunderstanding of consent. (There are two Talkback nights during the run with speakers on trauma and sexual assault.) It's a messy play that ends with a shocking punch to the gut.
Throughout the 90-minute oneact, there is the sickening reminder that what happens on the internet stays on the internet.
“That's the kicker for the internet,” says Robb. “It's able to immortalize the past.”