The Heath

Recommended by

Jillian Blevins:

1 Dec. 2022

“ Banjo + Shakespeare = perfection. I was lucky enough to see this piece performed at MRT in 2018. Gunderson’s metatheatrical autobiography invites us into her very real struggle to reconcile her conflicting feelings about her grandfather, with whom she shared a deep connection but differed from in many important ways (his holy text is the Bible; hers is Shakespeare). The storm of Lear’s madness is a powerful metaphor for her grandfather’s Alzheimer’s, and Gunderson’s transformation into first Cordelia and then The Fool allows her to try to enter his world and get answers about their relationship. ”
Samantha Marchant:

1 Dec. 2022

“ Resonated on many levels, this script reaches for connection. ”
Angels Theatre Company:

6 Feb. 2022

“ There is something stark and simple about Lauren Gunderson’s The Heath. It is theatre and storytelling in its most raw and honest format. It is messy, rough, strange, unfinished, and “meta” (really meta). However, to call this play meta-theatrical is at once accurate and overly simple. For, in telling this story, Lauren exposes her vulnerability and her fear as a playwright and as a grand-daughter. It is not a typical hackneyed or gimmicky meta-theatrical statement on the postmodern situation of the theatre as a whole, but a way of story-telling that is deeply personal, fundamentally revealing, and altogether beautiful. ”