Nineteen hours ago, 15-year-old Maria vanished from her quinceañera and hasn’t been seen in person or online since. The motives and suspects are many. The truth, however, might be more than her sleuthing pals can handle.
In Dead Girl’s Quinceañera, playwright Phanésia Pharel marries Nancy Drew and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Though its mystery resolves with a twist it hasn’t earned, Goodman Theatre’s collaboration with Chicago Latino Theater Alliance delivers a hilarious and heartbreaking portrayal of female adolescence in the modern age.
Persons of interest
“In Miami, there is a true crime professional investigating the disappearance of icon bestie Maria,” reveals Salma (Jacqueline Guillén), who’s vowed to use her Dateline obsession to find her friend before Salma’s own quinceañera in two days.
Luckily, Salma has allies: Maria’s cousin Phoebe (Ariana Burks) and their newish pal Este (Carmen Berkeley). Backed by a bulletin board of hot-pink Post-its and a healthy fear of the PTA-mom Facebook group, they’re on the case.
Why did Maria exit just before her father-daughter dance? What did she mean when she texted Phoebe “I need you”? And who was that buying chloroform at Home Depot? But when Phoebe follows a tip she can’t ignore, she finds out what really happened, and why Maria may never come home.
Director Melia Bensussen infuses Pharel’s dialogue with the wide-eyed wonder of mid-adolescence, along with the dark realizations of that age: as girls of color, they’re vulnerable to the worst of humanity. The trio’s reenacted interrogations of Maria’s ex-boyfriend and everyone’s favorite agriculture teacher nicknamed “Plant Daddy” are giggle-inducing, which makes their dawning awareness of real danger a gut punch.
Pharel captures the texture of girlhood so precisely that the ending’s shortcuts stand out. The truth behind Maria’s disappearance arrives with too little groundwork to land, and one adult’s part in it contradicts nearly everything we’ve learned about him. It’s a rare whodunit where the sleuths are more convincing than the solution. The play is at its best in the confines of Salma’s bedroom, where three teens squabble, banter, and rely on the only trustworthy sources: each other.
Dead Girl’s Quinceañera contains mature language and realistic teenage conversation around violence, murder, difficult sexual topics, and abuse.
Is ‘Dead Girl’s Quinceañera’ worth seeing?
Though it loses steam with an implausible resolution, Dead Girl’s Quinceañera is darkly funny and poignant, ringing true for anyone who’s been a teen girl—even those of us too old for TikTok.
- Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St., Chicago
- Notable performers: Carmen Berkeley, Ariana Burks, Jacqueline Guillén
- Running time: Approximately 90 minutes with no intermission
- Performances through November 1, 2026
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