←Recommendations of The Mermaids' Parade

A beautiful play making drama out of distance, finding communication while continents apart in an imaginative and magical space, expansive and evocative, rich in texture and language.

This play makes magic feel as real as violence. It asks the audience to sit with a world that can contain so many forms of both these things. & neither makes the other less true. Excellent reading & interview on the Parsnip Ship podcast.

I admire the ease of flowing through two different locations showing how they are different and overlap. Magic to see on stage.

This absolutely whimsical and gorgeous Coney Island fantasy intermingled with biting realism is one of Femia's best. The dialogue is the star to me; snappy but truthful and unapologetic and brave. Upsetting but optimistic. I love this play.

A beautifully rendered, magical realist meditation on trauma, healing and connection. It breaks your heart like a conch shell and then puts it back together again.

A beautiful play about the pain of being alive and the magic that exists in every day life. With every word, you can feel Gina Femia’s love of Brooklyn and Coney Island. Highly recommend this play!

This play is magic. It's a punk fairytale set in Coney Island. Gina's characters and dialogue is always electric, and I loved how this play plays with myths and then debunks them. Funny and tragic and hopeful.

Each voice is so accurately heard, each storyline so well-developed, the reader can easily imagine the playwright disappearing into the scenery that she so masterfully and meticulously captures. This is a play about magic, our innate need for it: whether it be the magic of transcendence, holiness, mythical beings, or the everyday magic of being alive and in love in this world - the magic of making it day to day when it feels like everything is stacked against you. "The Mermaid's Parade" begs us to believe when it seems as though there is nothing to believe in. Produce this!

The humans in this play are so exquisitely rendered with unique and distinct voices that I can practically hear all of their different cadences and rhythms in my head. The juxtaposition of Islande's and Biron's trauma is so beautifully navigated and sensitively handled, as wrenching and gutting as some moments are. The stage magic on display is also magnificently conceived of! What a joy to read such fantastical stage directions and actions that seem at once so far-fetched, but that evoke about 10 different possible staging iterations in my director-brain. It would be a pleasure to see this staged!

I had the pleasure of listening to this play performed on The Parsnip Ship podcast. I highly recommend listening to it. Gina Femia writes dialogue such that each character has a very specific voice, and the actors captured this beautifully. I also love the way Femia's writes stage directions and pays such careful attention to sound/music and staging.