←Recommendations of Pluto

I remembered seeing this play from the Orlando Shakes years ago and it's something I still think about all the time. With some of the most skilled, layered imagery I've ever seen along with unexpected wry humor and the role of a lifetime for whoever is gifted with playing Elizabeth, I can't recommend this play enough.

This play is the magical, shadowy, twisted riddle I always hope for when reading. Mr. Yockey has mixed his ingredients with a careful palate; the Greek mythology, combined with the planetary metaphors, are impeccably balanced. We “get it” without being walloped over the head. The alien language erupting from the dog, and Maxine’s splendid fury, create an epic feel so much larger than its perimeter of a kitchen. In short, the strangeness of the world lends an extravagant scope to its heroine’s grief that pure realism could never have achieved.

PLUTO is a play we need to teach to all of our theater students. The resulting conversation is vital to growing a community of young adults eager to engage in difficult and often taboo subjects. This play is beautiful. It's layered, but not too complex, and above all, it's not an issue play. It's a play about so many things, but most importantly it's a play that will get an audience talking- whether an audience of one student in front of a screen, or an entire theater. This play is IMPORTANT.

Not in a long time has a play made me simultaneously laugh and cry as much as Pluto does. This play is timely and bone chilling with how it examines the painful reality of today's issues with authentic human connection. It is beautiful and theatrical and is the play we need to be experiencing right now in America. Every time I read it the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

PLUTO by Steve Yockey received a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere. The partnering NNPN Member Theaters were Actor’s Express (Atlanta, GA), Forum Theatre (Silver Spring, MD), Know Theatre (Cincinnati, OH), and Orlando Shakespeare Theater (FL).

A surrealistic dreamscape that evokes with bizarre humor, a theatrical supernatural zeal and dramatic intrigue, the potency of myth crashing into the tragic reality of contemporary life. Weaving a tapestry that is both epic and intimate, PLUTO will leave your mind vibrating as if from the reverberating after effects of an earthquake.

Steve uses his trademark theatricality to tell a rich emotional story with a gut-punch ending. Humor, surprises, and heart meld with the mythological and supernatural in this powerful work.

A true triumph of a play by one of our country's most prolific writers. Having recommended Pluto as an NNPN Showcase selection first, and then seeing it at Know Theatre of Cincinnati, this play affected me deeply both as a reader and an audience member. It is as funny, horrifying, touching, and perfect a piece of theatre as I've ever seen.

As an artist, I'm fascinated with finding ways to humanize the people and events we consider monstrous and unthinkable. This play does so brilliantly. It doesn't attempt to explain or excuse but simply humanize. And it does so with a certain amount of humor and theatricality that make it a joy to watch.

Simply one of the most powerful pieces of theatre I've had the privilege to witness. It's partnering of mythology, the supernatural, and horror combine to make the unthinkable impossible to not think about. This play should be done in every community.