←Recommendations of FRIENDS WITH GUNS

A strong premise that's overly familiar (liberals dealing with guns) and yet the playwright offers intriguing surprises in the execution. In a scenario that feels like it might evolve into the anti-vaxxer granola world of helicopter parenting, with a bit of GOD OF CARNAGE thrown in, two sets of parents travel new ground. How much do new friends know about one another? The playwright intertwines themes of power and control and gun violence in important ways.

What can I say that hasn't already been said about this amazing play by Stephanie Alison Walker? It has compelling dialogue, it calls for a very long--and difficult--look at the deeply held beliefs and their potential for warping into toxic obsession and masculinity. Both in seeing the play in production and in reading it, I was left wondering about some of my own deeply held beliefs and began analyzing what my positions were and whether I held those beliefs with sincerity or with more sinister purpose. It's a gut-check of a play that will leave you debating long after reading.

With terrific, easy dialogue, and relatable characters, this play is smartly crafted to bring us to the edge of terror at the close. Powerful even in reading, and I imagine it will be even more in production. Well done.

FRIENDS WITH GUNS is a powerful portrait of progressive parents in the era of polarization and post-Trump panic. Especially poignant is its portrayal of a mother’s isolation, out of which grows her desperation for adult company. Equally truthful is the play’s portrait of that timeless need of married couples to “couple” with other married couples. FRIENDS WITH GUNS veers toward satire but only briefly as a sort of gotcha for what lies ahead. Because, there is an obstacle to all this kumbaya. It explodes, along with all the other carefully constructed tensions in this nail-biter of a play.

FRIENDS WITH GUNS was a finalist for InterAct's inaugural New Play Development Award. Out of a record-breaking 432 submissions, FRIENDS WITH GUNS stood out to us through its specific characters and its clever, surprising, feminist approach to gun ownership.

It is the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's pleasure to recommend Stephanie Alison Walker and their play Friends With Guns as a finalist for our 2018 National Playwrights Conference. The play rose through a competitive, anonymous, multileveled selection process that took nearly nine months to execute. As one of 53 finalists out of more than 1,4200 submissions, the strength of its writing has allowed this work to prosper in such a competitive selection process.

Friends with Guns is a fresh, funny, surprising, and powerful new play. It feels like a play we need right now and I sincerely hope to see it produced all over the country.

This play is one of the best I've read on NPX. It's more than deserving of its awards. In fact, it needs more awards. Lots more awards--all of them. It is funny and tense and realistic and absolutely terrifying and timely and the structure is so perfect and I don't think I'll ever stop thinking about this play. I feel like I just took a masterclass. Expect to see Stephanie Alison Walker's name a LOT more with writing like this. Read this play immediately and then produce it with your best actors, best designers, and best director.

This play is incredibly timely, relevant, and well handled. The dialogue is extremely well crafted, and the characters are complex and multi-dimensional. I would love to see this production staged. Heck, I would love to be in a production. There's a lot to unpack here, no matter which side of the issues you land on. Excellent play that leaves you really thinking about your own beliefs and stances.

A masterful piece for the right foursome with strong scenes for F/F, M/F and M/M. Well-crafted, excellently paced, and a scene study dream. Fully locked and loaded.