←Recommendations of Even Flowers Bloom in Hell, Sometimes

Wow. Franky Gonzalez has written a beautifully and brutally honest portrayal of the lives of those in incarceration. Powerful. Thought provoking. Simply stunning. A mixtape for the ages.

Franky has written an important, eye-opening play filled with raw truths and compassion. Even Flowers Bloom in Hell, Sometimes is a powerful theatrical play and an honest, gut-wrenching exploration of incarceration and the humanity of those trapped in an unfair system.

This play is one hell of a mixtape. Following a journey of a man path's who is eager for a redemption story only to have to settle for something a lot more realistic is as truthful as truth gets. For those who are familiar with the prison system, this play will speak to you in the many specific voices that exist on the inside, calling out for change and more importantly, empathy. Every moment is thought provoking and so I suggest you absorb this play and make yourself a better person for it.

An incredible prism of people and the places they come from, and might find themselves, pivoting with heart and grace around subjects as small as a fragile, precious newborn, to as big as the foundations of the prison system. Deftly ranging across themes in poetry, theatre, deep dives on philosophy and meaning, with this charm and ease that will leave you gutted. I was so glad to see/hear a reading at the Road Theatre Company, via Zoom. These indelible characters, once they find you, can't be forgotten. A brilliant work from an important voice in American Theatre.

Beautiful work! I love how Gonzalez uses the theatre itself as the art that lifts the inmates up and gives them hope. I love the way it ends. We have the sadness of a "real" ending and the dream of the way things could be and we have a surprise too. Everything blooms.

I experienced this play during the Austin Latino New Play Festival of 2019 and was immediately transported into a world that is timeless, raw, and true. The structure of this play is absolutely unique, like a soundtrack. The musicality is undeniable, with a rhythm that flows from beat to beat. I was personally invested because Gonzalez highlights what many of us (people of color) experience living in this country - the continuous battle against a racially biased system that was created to economically, and humanitarianly, keep us down.

This play simply overflows with riches. So much is packed in here about institutional racism, generational misery, history, the power of art, and many other topics we all need to think about. But more than anything, this play is deeply human. Gonzalez renders his characters realistically but with a sensitivity that made me gasp at times. It is unfailingly heart-breaking and true, urgent and poetic, both fatalistic and redemptive. This writer's talents continue to astonish me.

This beautiful, lyrical play demonstrates the cyclical and Sisyphean hell that minorities can't escape when put through the industrial prison complex. Franky's touching characters are caught within the walls of the prison structure but are also flip and self-aware of the play's structure. Especially fun are the two inmates whose back and forth is like a jailhouse Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. This is a very special play.

Time affects everyone and everything, but in prison that effect seems to disappear leaving behind only an impersonal memory to those on the outside, and to those unfortunate enough to be on the inside? They find Hell. But as the title of Franky Gonzalez's play reminds the audience and reader, even Hell can have it's silver linings. The play in the most simple terms is beautiful in it's language and masterful in its themes of time, love, and race, and as many others have written, I hope to see a live production of this soon.

Thanks for a mesmerizing piece.

I am not going to lie, I cried the first time I read this play. This play is an honest, raw and heartfelt depiction of the effects of the prison industrial system on society today. It situates a real life scenario in the midst of personable characters. I love this piece.