←Recommendations of The Ice Treatment

I saw a reading of this play a few years ago, and I still find myself thinking about it and recommending it to anyone who will listen. This is a hilarious, dynamic, highly theatrical play that surprises you with its emotional depth while you're still recovering from your laughter. And it's a truly dynamite central role. I want this play to get produced everywhere.

In the name of victory, your fans want you to win with any means necessary for the championship! Or at least that's Blondie's story. A hilarious pitch with barbie dolls and Craigslist actors, we go into the dark quest for victory! Well done!

Man, I devoured this play. Eppler has a way of crafting dialogue and characters that is just so compelling, and his work in 'The Ice Treatment' is no different. This is a story about rewriting one's own narrative, and Blondie does this so well that it's easy to see her as a genuine hero, despite what we already know about the story. I also really REALLY enjoyed the dead astronaut setup and payoff. I want to see this play done everywhere! Take an afternoon and treat yourself to this play.

I was at the reading at the Ingram New Works Festival in 2015 and at the premier by Actors Bridge in 2016 with the brilliant Rachel Agee in the lead role. This is an amazing play. All that you think it might be from reading the synopsis and the other recommendations is true and more. Anyone producing plays professionally today needs to read this. As a comedy floating on the insight and heartbreak of the story, this play is one of the funniest pieces I've ever seen. Your audiences will love it and want to see it more than once.

So I literally carried this play around with me for weeks. Like, the printed script. I'd read it in restaurants. I'd read it on trains. On buses. I'd read it *to* people. I'd finish it, and then start again. It's that. Damn. Good. Here, Eppler gives us a gift of a play, filled with vast humanity artfully compressed into an object, or a moment, or a line. The arc of this play, centering around the brilliantly crafted Blondie, feels as natural as can be. You're along for her ride, and you're happy to be there. This play is genius.

I've been lucky enough to experience this play pretty intimately for a while now, and I'll say this: I think about it almost every single day. And it's impossible not to. Punching you with a dangerous cocktail of hysterical laughs and devastating psychological place making, THE ICE TREATMENT demands that we ask questions about our celebrity-stuffed world, where economic delusion and personal narratives are broadcast, believed and then dismantled before we have the chance to blink.

This has the great mix of historical context and fiction. You are constantly asking did that really happen? The use of multi-media is really smart and it makes you laugh and think.

I always wondered if Tonya Harding's story would be told a different way now, instead of the media frenzy of the '90s. So, as a dramaturg for the Great Plains Theatre Conference, I was thrilled to read Nate's take on Tonya, performed by three actors in a basement with Barbie dolls & VHS tapes! Smart and hilarious, reaching back to the past but then taking us forward. We were happy to have Nate present this work at GPTC '16.