Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Daddy Issues: Navigating girlhood adolescence in Eliana Theologides Rodriguez’s INDIAN PRINCESSES and Eliya Smth’s DAD DON’T READ THIS

• By drediman
• May 27, 2026
• No Comments

Currently Off-Broadway, you’ll find a pair of plays of note that tackle the topic of girlhood adolescence. Likely inspired, at least in part, by the success and the widespread chord struck by Kimberly Belflower’s John Proctor Is the Villain amongst younger theatergoers, these coming-of-age plays endeavor to tap into the psyches of young women as they navigate these fraught years of their lives. As per usual, read on for my thoughts.

DAD DON’T READ THIS
St. Luke’s Theatre
Through May 30

One of the unexpected highlights of the spring season is Eliya Smith’s uncannily written and acted Dad Don’t Read This (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) at St. Luke’s Theatre in the Midtown Theater District. Refreshingly more vibes than a guidebook, it’s one of the most astutely observant and quietly harrowing theatrical works I’ve yet come across about girls going through their early adolescent years. Set in suburban Ohio, the play is more specifically an exploration of the friendship between four teenage girls who find themselves in a temporary but frustrating state of limbo — they’re old enough to be cognizant of the unruliness of the world around them but don’t yet have the ability to independently function within it (interestingly, not once do adults make an appearance in the play). One of the only times they can fully claim agency over their lives is during their occasional sleepovers, during which they pass the time goofing around, gossiping, and playing The Sims. In their unfiltered interactions, we become aware of their budding desires and identities but also get the sense that they don’t know quite how to consistently take hold of their emotions, thereby breeding somewhat unhealthy yet endearing co-dependencies between them. Smith’s clear-eyed yet empathetic play stealthily juxtaposes extreme naturalism with surreal, often meta-theatrical flights of fancy, which unleashes the characters’ youthful but no less existential woes out into the cosmos as only theater can. Throughout, the writing is authentic and convincingly idiosyncratic — as are the performances by the four actresses, led by Amalia Yoo (so affecting in John Proctor Is the Villain) as Mal, whose angst and inexplicable mood swings are the destabilizing force of the play. Director Chloe Claudel’s incisive and consistently disarming staging — which boldly encompasses St. Luke’s admittedly awkward subterranean space — is exquisitely attuned to the spirit and rhythms of Smith’s text, giving it both the claustrophobic intimacy and out-of-body expansiveness it demands.

INDIAN PRINCESSES
Atlantic Theater Company
Through June 7

Then down at Atlantic Theater Company in Chelsea, you’ll find girls taking matters into their own hands in Indian Princesses (RECOMMENDED) by Eliana Theologides Rodriguez. In short, the new work, which takes its cue from the playwright’s own experiences as a youth, chronicles the journeys of a group of multi-racial/ethnic girls and their white fathers who come together to partake in a YMCA program inspired by the Native American experience, culminating in a “politically correct” presentation of their own concoction (it will come as no surprise that this effort goes off the rails really badly, really quickly). In comparison to Dad Don’t Read This, the matters brought up in the play — for better or worse — are more explicitly wrought, namely as it relates to cultural appropriation and racism (the play is set in 2008, during which time examples of such instances were more blatant, especially in hindsight). Another difference is the insistent presence of the fathers, who are more often than not, perhaps unfairly, rendered as being clueless and ineffectual. Indeed, the play is as much about father-daughter relationships as it is the coming-of-age stories of the five girls at the center of it all. The most satisfying segments of the play are when the girls seclude themselves from their patriarchal counterparts and are left up to their own devices. In these awkward yet tender interactions with each other, the vulnerabilities and the complexities that underlie their unassumingly youthful personas are fleshed out. That being said, there’s a clear way to interpret and read Rodriguez play — whose tone lands somewhere between earnest family comedy-drama and pointed satire — eschewing the mysteries and ambiguities of Smith’s aforementioned play. Overall, the accomplished cast give admirable performances, particularly the five actresses — although ultimately they come across more like young adults playing preteens and young teenagers rather than authentically the latter. Thankfully, Indian Princesses unfolds smoothly under Miranda Cornell’s direction, who harnesses the episodic nature of the play intelligently and with a clear point of view.