What a devastating, resonant clash of friends and neighbors. The plot gorgeously zooms in on each individual, and then out to the global ramifications, in a way that feels both shocking and inevitable. The final scene will break your heart and glue it together again.

There's much to unpack in this powerful piece. The realistic yet symbolic setting, the meal motif, the well-drawn characters...everything comes into sharp focus as forces pull them from their "decadence on an unprecedented level" and they are left with humanity's "stored knowledge" and fragile, newly won liberties in literal and figurative ruins. Rising up and ultimately winning? Let's hope so. Gatton teaches (without being didactic) and it is a powerful lesson.

A proverbial culture war occurs in the bedrock of civilization in this political drama by Vince Gatton. Dialogue is raw, bold, staggering, witty. Current societal vistas are laid bare regarding religious freedom, marital rights, class privileges, youth's dreams, gender expression, first-world problems, etc. As a resident of Florida, known for being a cultural vacuum (if not void), a great deal of the play rang not only true, but familiar. Reminiscent of the social dramas of Emilio Estevez or Michael Tolkin's THE RAPTURE, the heart bleeds off the page. The central twist is as incendiary as the play's titular historical catastrophe.