THE STORY: Four young siblings recreate their everyday lives in a game of make-believe in their attic, while the world beneath them bodes a more sinister reality. Defying all narrative expectations, MAKE BELIEVE is a gut-wrenching meditation on the imprint of childhood trauma on adults.
“MAKE BELIEVE is a rich and moving contemporary drama…[Wohl’s] formal daring, her precise calibration of humor and despair, her confidence and anger and empathy, all mingled, lift MAKE BELIEVE into the realm where even naturalism becomes a great mystery.” —The New York Times
“…MAKE BELIEVE is beautifully accessible. As an audience member, you are not only allowed to figure out this play by yourself, but you can, precisely because it is so excellently written…There is no way to see MAKE BELIEVE and leave unmoved. It is a profoundly affecting, harrowing work that will force you to think—to re-think, perhaps—your own childhood and what from it you are still carrying around. Get ready for an emotional night of reckoning that you will never forget.” —Medium.
“[MAKE BELIEVE] achieves the near-impossible: capturing the world through the eyes of children and their adult selves while adeptly avoiding fantasy, nostalgia, and sentimentality…Bess Wohl’s MAKE BELIEVE is a masterful exploration of childhood and its lingering impact…Tragic, funny, mysterious, and true, it is easily among the best plays I have seen all year.” —Stage Left.
