Hard Truths
Hard Truths
Ongoing exploration of the contemporary world with a tragicomic study of human strengths and weaknesses.
Kevin Ward reviewedJuly 1, 2025
In Hard Truths, Marianne Jean-Baptiste gives the kind of performance that serves as both anchor and wrecking ball. As Pansy, a self-destructive force of nature, she’s not just a challenge to those around her but a cruelly honest reflection of their own frailties. It’s a rare, almost radical depiction of a woman allowed to be angry, mean, and unapologetically difficult—a role traditionally hoarded by male characters.
Beneath Pansy’s barbs and bitterness is the unmistakable air of someone lashing out as a form of survival. What begins as a performance brimming with barbed humor unravels into a portrait of a woman whose every attempt at healing collapses under the weight of her own rage.