Winner of the Novitiate Prize
For the past three years, Charlie and her two roommates have been running a secret online girl group, “Tell Us What Happened,” which boasts over 400 members and prides itself on being a safe space for young women to disclose their stories and support each other. Tensions rise when a handful of members come to realize they have all been sexually mistreated by the same guy–and that guy happens to be Charlie’s best friend, Josh. Alliances are stretched to the breaking point as the girls pursue justice while Josh and Charlie fight for their friendship.
Tell Us What Happened is a charged investigation into the mechanics of sexual assault reconciliation in the age of social media.
News & Reviews
“Throughout the 90-minute one-act, there is the sickening reminder that what happens on the internet stays on the internet. The characters must deal with all that goes on within a forum that exposes everyone, forever…It’s a messy play that ends with a shocking punch to the gut.” — Liane Faulder, Edmonton Journal
“By the end I found I’d been clutching my reading glasses so hard in one hand I’d bent them out of shape…In a repertoire of foregone conclusions, this new play is impressively fearless.” — Liz Nicholls, 12th Night
“Tell Us What Happened artfully fits in enough to keep us talking for the next ten years.” — Tom Murray, Edmonton Journal
About the Author
Michelle Robb is an actor, dancer, and playwright from amiskwaciwaskahikan, currently splitting her time between Edmonton and Tkaronto. Her formal education was at the University of Alberta, where she completed two years of their BA Drama Honours program before graduating their BFA Acting program in 2021. Her dance training has taken place at a number of Canadian studios, as well as the ImpulsTanz Festival in Vienna, Austria. She learned how to write plays in the Citadel Young Playwriting company, which is where Tell Us What Happened began in 2017 as a class assignment before going on to win the Novitiate Award in the Alberta Playwriting Competition in 2020. Michelle’s independent work in dance and playwriting has been funded by the Edmonton Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.
