Honey Never Spoils

On the eve of their season finale, the hosts of the true-crime podcast Echoes Of The Lost are excited when Sarah, played by standout Jada Rifkin, informs her co-hosts Brooke (Chantel Winters, also the playwright) and Victoria (Emery Nguyen) that she has brokered a lucrative deal with Spotify for their upcoming tenth season. There’s just one catch: the execs want them to cover the unsolved murder of their high school friend Honey Mitchell. 

Bait and Switch’s exciting new piece, featuring bold lighting by Rian Tran, explores the behind-the-scenes of true crime content, and successfully manipulates the audience’s own morbid curiosity to keep us invested the entire time. Who killed Honey, and what are her old friends still not telling each other? What does their creepy sound guy Evan (Jacob Klick) have to do with it? I was totally enthralled, right up until the end when it just… stopped. 

The bare-bones podcast set by Rian Tran gives space for the slow-burning drama, and this is perfect for such a philosophical narrative. It was clear that director Stephanie Williams wanted what little colour we saw to be from Honey’s personal effects scattered around the desks, and these objects of childhood were a potent symbol of a life that ended too soon. In the text, there is palpable empathy for victims of violence, and I found myself drawn to Honey as a character– it felt like she was someone the audience had known and lost too. 

But even while they say they are advocating for these people, Brooke still expresses concern about exploiting Honey for the show. Sarah challenges her– is that really what she believes they do? This moment is a revelation that true-crime content may not be neatly divided into two categories: exploitative or helpful. Honey Never Spoils acknowledges that things can be both, and that’s as complicated as a teenaged friendship cut short too soon. 

Unfortunately, there are no answers to any of the questions posed throughout the piece. This is frustratingly accurate to life, where we may never learn what happened to missing or murdered women and girls. For a theatre show, however, this seemed underdeveloped, and like the piece didn’t have a clear perspective to offer on the issue. When the play stopped at a climactic twist, I was left wishing that they had more to say. 

For true-crime junkies who seek a solid story and a gentle study of the genre, Honey Never Spoils will only get better with time.