There's a chaotic scene at the end of the film CHILDREN OF MEN... I kept thinking about that film while reading this. That movie plays in the back of my mind randomly. I've no doubt anyone who sees TESSERACT will experience a similar remembrance effect as they go about the rest of their lives. Sickles channels a pessimistic anger here that hopefully, hopefully can serve as a wake-up call to bigots and centrists alike. I think one of the most "thrilling" aspects, is that you know it's coming. Because we do. It does. And we have to stop it.

When I say this play devastated me, you shouldn't have any reason to think I’m exaggerating — this is Scott Sickles we’re talking about after all.

I think the most terrifying part about Tesseract isn’t that it feels so close to happening, but that it is already happening, in some form, all across our nation and our world. It is both a warning and a warped mirror, a plea and a primal scream. When the curtain falls, or you reach the last page, it will leave you changed.

This is a simply and utterly devastating play. And I mean that as a salute to its power, its craft, its gripping narrative. The harrowing loss of a child is made all the more horrific by the discovery that the child's identity and their physical person have been violated. What is also devastating is the way that this play functions as a cautionary tale. The seizure of power by religious extremists and the erasure of trans people seems entirely possible in our current political climate. I say this as one who lives in Florida.