Kwek crafts a nuanced story that offers no easy answers. Tackling a complex whirlpool of factors such as unequal power dynamics and implied consent, he creates characters that are utterly relatable and almost painful to watch. Indeed, the play and its many shades of grey make for difficult viewing. One is unable to escape the weight of the discomfort and the unresolved, open-ended nature of these stories offer little consolation.

Director Tracie Pang has assembled a stellar cast of eight actors who deliver honest, heart-wrenching performances. Newcomer Tess Pang makes an arresting stage debut as a spunky millennial who makes a controversial allegation. There are equally strong turns by Oon Shu An as a woman trying to navigate a complex relationship, Serene Chen as an intermediary placed in an invidious position and Adrian Pang as a potty-mouthed man-child with a dark secret. Set designer and frequent collaborator Eucien Chia cleverly incorporates aspects of topography and the human anatomy into his set, alluding to the blatant bodily objectification and murky contours that dominate conversations about sex. James Tan and Genevieve Peck's sensuous lighting and Jing Ng's disconcerting soundscapes round out the emotionally charged atmosphere.

Pretty Girls is a timely reminder of the dangers of sexual misconduct and the importance of awareness to mitigate these issues. It would be wishful thinking to assume that these matters would disappear overnight but through understanding, we can play our part to shape attitudes, reframe the narrative and treat each other with the respect we all deserve

It is raw, powerful stuff - one that will leave audiences shaken. Provocation is central to the issues that the play, directed by Tracie Pang, wants to tackle: consent, sexual misconduct, victim-blaming, and toxic masculinity. It is less concerned with blunt finger-pointing and more with blurred lines. The characters are well-realised and relatable - both victims and perpetrators alike.

This is the most ambitious part of Pangdemonium’s project: the paradigm shift needed to demonstrate that people who commit or enable sexual harassment and assault are not always exceptional or monstrous. This too, the play tries to grapple with: What should happen in the aftermath of such harm? How should apologies be delivered, retribution pursued? This is What Happens to Pretty Girls is a sobering look at ways in which today’s culture continues to fail victims and create aggressors.

It should provoke audiences to ask themselves some hard questions of their own.

Unabashedly bold and brutally honest, provocative and polarizing, the play is a damning indictment against the notion in the title – it shows that sexual assault can happen to anyone. What Happens To Pretty Girls makes itself stand out from the other plays as it addresses the issue of sexual harassment in a rather uncommon manner. While the play drew inspiration from the #MeToo movement, it is actually not about the movement itself.

The play dissects the #MeToo movement and delves more into the grey areas and blurred lines instead – situations with no easy answers are addressed through the stories of our three victims. Overall, This Is What Happens To Pretty Girls is a riveting play that will leave you questioning yourself and the people you know, and reinvent your perception towards sexual assault.

Directed by Tracie Pang, This Is What Happens To Pretty Girls does a bang-up job of capturing the complexities of sexual harassment. Rather than a one-dimensional narrative about the oppression of women, it offers a multi-layered peek into the individual experiences of its eight diverse characters, each with their own story to tell.

The play peels back the layers of each character, revealing a nuanced presentation of the innumerable issues and scenarios tied to sexual misconduct and gender inequality. It grapples with the painful realities of life, many of which hit so close to home that certain dialogues sound like actual conversations you’ve heard. Everything feels familiar, yet nothing is sure. The script offers no straightforward answers or easy resolutions. Neither are there clear distinctions between who’s good and bad.

Pangdemonium boldly brings to the fore the contentious subject of sexual misconduct in This Is What Happens To Pretty Girls, a breath of fresh air in a climate of technology-enhanced activism, where third-party bystanders swiftly dole out blame and impose victim/perpetrator binaries. The piece focuses on the grey areas inherent in some cases of sexual misconduct, delivering a couple of uncomfortably visceral moments with sufficient nuance. It is here where the play makes its most salient point – witnessing all sides of a story unfold concurrently through an unbiased lens does not make it any easier to hold one party fully accountable for violated boundaries.The multifaceted nature of the parties involved in each developing scenario is also explored.

Confounding character traits and histories surface throughout the play, disrupting an easy mapping of stereotypes onto characters based on gender or power-play within situations. Exposing a character’s inner vulnerability and desperation for clarity and repentance humanises them, without negating the severity of their offending action.

The strength in This Is What Happens To Pretty Girls is thus in its ability to offer us what the real world cannot – time and space to thoroughly review a matter through multiple lenses and perspectives, and the realisation that some cases of sexual misconduct and the labels we attach to those involved are perhaps more layered and complex than they may seem.