If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka

A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE

If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka

Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy  /  5w, 2m, 1any gender (adult)

Tori Sampson

In a mashup of West African folklore and contemporary American culture, Tori Sampson's provocative, hilarious new play follows four teenage girls as they grapple with societal definitions of beauty.

Image: 2019 Playwrights Horizons Production (Joan Marcus)

If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka

Request licence
Get the Script
  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    5w, 2m, 1any gender (adult)
  • Duration
    Duration
    105 Minutes
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Fable/Folktale
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult, Teen (Age 14-18)

Details

Summary

Combining West African folklore and contemporary American culture, If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must be a Muhfucka follows four teenage girls as they grapple with societal definitions of beauty. In the fictional setting of Affreakah-Amirrorkah, the four young women – Kaya, Massassi, Adama and Akim – are given an opportunity to live in a society where their individual beauty can reign supreme. But this opportunity comes at a dangerous cost.

Tori Sampson's hilariously provocative play doesn’t ask the question "How much is beauty worth?" but rather, "Why are so many willing to pay its price?"

History
If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must be a Muhfucka premiered Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons on February 15, 2019. Directed by Leah C. Gardiner, the production featured Níkẹ Uche Kadri, Antoinette Crowe-Legacy, Mirirai Sithole and Phumzile Sitole.
Cast Attributes
Keywords
Performing Groups

CHORUS – Comedian. Ageless.
AKIM – Beautiful girl. Seventeen years life.
MASSASSI – Beautiful girl. Seventeen years life.
ADAMA – Beautiful girl. Seventeen years life.
KAYA – Beautiful girl. Seventeen years life.
KASIM – Confident boy. Seventeen years life.
MA – Refined woman. Lived enough to know.
DAD – Protective man. Lived enough to know.
MIMES – Southern Baptist style mimes embody song to offer transcendence to those who believe. A reflection of what Yahweh sees in us all. (To be inhabited by Dwellers).

Grant audiences the gift of basking in beauty beyond Eurocentric measurements.
Akim should not have a lighter skin tone than Massassi. Nobody needs to be tall, skinny, have straight teeth, clear skin, long hair, etc.
BE beauty in all your glory.

  • Time Period Contemporary, Present Day, New Millennium/21st Century
  • Setting Affreakah-Amirrorkah. The present.
  • Features Contemporary Costumes/Street Clothes
  • Duration 105 Minutes

Media

“Delicious! A contemporary fable about the black female body and its discontents... an auspicious professional playwriting debut.” – The New York Times

“One of the pleasures of If Pretty Hurts is that it exists largely outside the white gaze. As part of the recent flowering on New York stages of plays that blur the boundaries of Africa and America... it honors its characters and its audience enough to assume the value of black lives that are only distantly mediated by Eurocentric expectations.” – The New York Times

"Riffing on a Nigerian folktale... Sampson’s got her finger on the sharp point of a splinter that goes excruciatingly deep.” – Vulture

“Charming... [a] vibrant 90-minute spin on the time-honored “black is beautiful” maxim... Sampson imagines a tale that also draws on elements echoed from Cinderella treatments.” – New York Stage Review

“Exhilarating... Sampson’s script plays like it’s sledding on a steep hill: You can feel the speed, the writer’s whizzing wit, the swift adjustments in tone and direction. The mixture of folklore-speak and hilarious up-to-the-minute banter is intoxicating, but it’s also a clever comic strategy to smuggle the girls’ pain past our watchful minds.” – Time Out New York

Videos

  • If Pretty Hurts... Trailer youtube thumbnail

    If Pretty Hurts... Trailer

  • If Pretty Hurts... Scene: Akim is Flawless youtube thumbnail

    If Pretty Hurts... Scene: Akim is Flawless

  • Tori Sampson on If Pretty Hurts... youtube thumbnail

    Tori Sampson on If Pretty Hurts...

  • Bringing Pretty and Ugly to the Stage youtube thumbnail

    Bringing Pretty and Ugly to the Stage

Photos

  • If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka

    Image: 2019 Playwrights Horizons Production (Joan Marcus)

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: £55 per performance plus VAT when applicable.

Scripts

Available Formats:
Get the Script

Authors

Tori Sampson

Tori Sampson

Boston native Tori Sampson’s plays include If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must be a Muhfucka (Playwrights Horizons, 2019), This Land Was Made (Vineyard Theatre, UPCOMING 2022), and Cadillac Crew (Yale Repertory Theater, 2019). Her plays have been developed at Great Plains Theatre Confe ...

View full profile

Now Playing