←Recommendations of Europa

An incredibly powerful story about the strength of the female bond in the most traumatic of circumstances. Excellent.

A thoughtful, striking play about the impact of past trauma and what happens when coincidence drags the repressed pain back to the surface. Saltwick establishes in Alma and Leslie an immediate if tenuous friendship bond and intertwines their lives with a common thread. Most excitingly, Saltwick then shifts us forward a generation to gauge the impact on their children, and the ways in which stories change with time. An important play on important themes.

This is a beautiful, sensitive play about two women who find friendship despite their pasts and current lives. The depth of their relationship is reflected and paralleled in their children. It is an engaging, sad yet heartwarming play about memories, narratives and secrets. I highly recommend it.

EUROPA is a riveting piece: my body felt so engaged with what was happening in the reading alone that it took me doing some stretches to get it back together. Each of the characters earns the love of the audience as they struggle to connect through the aftermath of a horrific experience. You want, so badly, to take this away from them so that they can have their friendships without this burden, but the play doesn't let you forget the depth of the consequences. I have rapidly become obsessed with this piece.

This play was a FINALIST for the 2017-2018 In-Progress New Play Reading Series at Unicorn Theatre in Kansas City, Missouri. It is our pleasure to support EUROPA.

Premiere Stages, the professional Equity theatre in residence at Kean University, is pleased to recognize “Europa” by Sarah Saltwick as a semifinalist for the 2018 Premiere Play Festival. “Europa” rose through a competitive selection process conducted by Premiere staff and a panel of outside theatre professionals to become one of 22 semifinalists out of 572 submissions. The panel was particularly impressed by its expertly crafted dialogue, its complex and thought-provoking examination of sexual assault, and the nuanced, troubled and troubling friendships at the heart of the play. Our congratulations and thanks to Sarah.

A sensitive portrait of two friendships (mothers and children) forged one early morning in a playground. Left me thinking about the abuses that shape us and the behaviors we are willing to overlook in those we love. An incredible tribute to those rare female friends who give us the space to tell our stories (no matter how painful) and really listen.

A bold, restrained look at the reluctant friendship between a victim of rape and the rapist’s spouse—both parents whose young children take a liking to one another. The playwright remarkably demonstrates how this tenuous bond held together by their kids can transform into something deeper despite circumstances. By taking a look at their first meeting and a meeting of their grown children much later, we are given a plaintive glimpse of how all of their relationships developed through the words and actions of their offspring.