A Tequila-fueled game of Truth or Dare yields unpredictable and life-changing consequences for the teenage protagonists of Adolescent Salvation, Tim Venable’s latest bit of play-writing brilliance on Rogue Machine’s ultra-intimate Henry Murray Stage.

The teens in question are 15-going-on-16 Natasha (Carolina Rodriquez) and her identically-named classmates Taylor (Alexandra Lee) and Taylor’s “Gay Emotional Support Animal” Taylor (Michael Guarasci), invited for a sleepover by Natasha’s single mom, who’s “out drinking like margaritas of whatever” with Girl Taylor’s mother and wants to make sure that her daughter doesn’t “throw some insane rager and burn the house down.” (Boy Taylor’s words, not mine.)

Instead, the two Taylors make it their business to find out more about the unknown quantity that is Natasha.

 Does she have friends? Does she have a boyfriend? And if neither is true, then who was she texting earlier in the evening?

 And what better way to find out the answers to these and other questions of a personal nature than to raid Natasha’s mother’s liquor stash and down a bottle’s worth of tequila shots?

As for what ensues next, far be it from me to be a spoiler, except to say that playwright Venable has more than one doozy of a surprise up his sleeve (including one that Rogue Machine has ingeniously kept hidden from audiences and so will I), not to mention the game-changing arrival of 30something Victoria (Jenny Flack).

Though not the first time a Tim Venable play has centered around teenage protagonists (that would be his remarkable 1990s-set The Beautiful People), Natasha, Taylor, and Taylor may well be his first Zoomers, and though I’m hardly an authority on Generation Z, he seems to get it a whole lot righter than the Gen X’er and Millennials show-running teen dramas on Netflix or HBO.

 Take for example the way Venable captures teenage bravado, Z-speak, and misinformation, as when when Boy Taylor opines that “dairy is fucked up” because “they like, rape cows and shit,” or when Girl Taylor declares herself a “social justice warrior” a la her role models on Tik Tok, or when she refuses Natasha’s request that she open up about own life because, lecturing like a PhD in psychology, “that’s called ‘trauma bonding.’”

As for anyone who gasped at the turn The Beautiful People took in its final ten minutes, that’s nothing compared to the gasp-inducers Venable has in store for you this time round.

 Director Guillermo Cinefuegos may be a couple of Gens removed from Venable’s Gen Z-ers, but you’d hardly know it from the pitch-perfect performances he’s elicited from the equally fabulous Rodriguez (a heartbreakingly vulnerable Natasha), Lee (whose Taylor is as hard-edged as she is achingly real), and Guarasci (the sweetest and sassiest and most adorable GBF a straight girl could wish for).

 Not only that but Flack delivers a powerhouse third-act turn as a woman who’s had more than enough ups and downs to last a lifetime.

As for what happens in the intermissionless Adolescent Salvation’s second act, mum’s the word.

Joel Daavid’s teenager’s bedroom set may well turn out to be the year’s most remarkable scenic design for reasons I’ll leave you to discover from the moment you enter Natasha’s walk-in closet except to say that you’ll be seated around her bedroom literally inches from the sleepover-ers,

Add to that Daavid’s dramatic lighting, Chris Moscatiello’s Spotify-infused sound design (and a wow of a dragging effect), Christine Cover Ferro’s pitch-perfect costumes, and Megan Trapani’s plethora of properties and set decoration paraphernalia and you’ve got a production design almost worth the price of admission.

Kudos too to intimacy director Allison Bibicoff and violence director Ned Mochel, who’ve got their work cut out for them here, and to a remarkable Keith Stevenson.

Adolescent Salvation is produced by Athena Saxon, Isabella Schwartz, and Rich Wong. Lindsey Neville is assistant director. Rachel Ann Manheimer is production state manager. Grant Gerrard is technical director. Casting is by Victoria Hoffman. Judith Borne is publicist.

I’ve been a fan of Tim Venable’s play-writing gifts since 2022’s gut-punching The Beautiful People and his wallop-packing Baby Foot the following year, and Adolescent Salvation makes it three must-sees in a row.

Los Angeles theater at its world-class best, Adolescent Salvation is one humdinger of a stunner.

Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles.
www.roguemachinetheatre.org

–Steven Stanley
September 18, 2025
Photos: Jeff Lorch

Visit www.theatreinla.com/nowplayingrs.php for a review roundup of what’s now playing in theaters around Los Angeles.

Tags: Los Angeles Theater Review, Matrix Theatre, Rogue Machine Theatre, Tim Venable