←Recommendations of EIGHT NIGHTS

Eight Nights is a beautifully constructed play delving into longstanding and generational trauma. Though so much comes to mind, so much has already been said in the numerous existing recommendations for this play! This is an extremely theatrical piece that doesn't shy away from difficult conversations, despite the central character's own resistance to having the most difficult one.

The past and how it can haunt a person comes alive in this powerful emotion filled piece. Despite the play being set over a long period of time you are never lost and never do you deter from wanting to see how the stories of these survivors unfold. I love the intimacy of using one room for the entirety of the piece and watching the characters come and go over time but they are never forgotten, you always want to know the next bit of their story. This is a piece of power with very real emotions woven throughout.

Some plays build tension by wrapping their narrative around a concise period of time, but few of them accomplish the feats of scope and lived-in intimacy as Jennifer Maisel manages with EIGHT NIGHTS. Set over over half a century's worth of Hanukkah evenings, this play engages meaningfully with the impact of generational trauma, the persistent fear of all survivors that the nightmare they survived may return again, and the importance -- and difficulty -- of telling one's story. EIGHT NIGHTS is an impressively structured, heartwrenching triumph.

Eight Nights is lyrical and gut-wrenching at once. Maisel's innovations include ellipses so rich Pinter himself would be envious. Maisel limns her characters instantly, through their unique speak; their lovability ensured by their matter-o-factness about backstories that would level most of us. The use of one apartment over eight nights and many decades is evocative. Characters no longer alive are present on the stage to haunt the living. Rebecca's experiences at Dachau impact her family and are the connective tissue between herself and the Black characters, Japanese and Muslim survivors and refugees. There's joy, humor and the prevailing human spirit.

For the third night of Hanukkah 2021 I read this stirring survivor’s tale, the story of a Jewish American family, and I was transported and so deeply touched. A gripping, epic saga set in a single room. Remarkable.

With so much already written about the Holocaust, it takes courage to tackle that subject and think something new can be added. Jennifer Maisel's, exciting, innovative, creative and insightful new play Eight Nights is just that and more-much, much more. I found myself thinking about it for days after I read it.

Beautiful and theatrical play exploring the unique pain of a Holocaust survivor from her arrival in the U.S. at age 19 into her 80s, along with various friends and family members (living and dead) who popular her life and memories. This play is so moving on the page and would be even more wonderful on stage.

A moving portrait of the generational fight for survival, hope and ultimately healing. Beautifully done.

I saw a reading of this play and was hooked from the opening scene; the world premiere production was gorgeous and moving. "Eight Nights" is a Jewish story, an immigrant story, and an American story; it's an old story and brand new; it's multi-cultural and multi-critical; also warmhearted and welcoming. Its every family squabble and everything that binds family ties so tightly.

In this beautiful piece of theatre, Jennifer Maisel gives us the epic and the intimate, the heart-breaking and the life-affirming, the tragedy of the past and the hope for the future. Maisel's rich, multi-layered characters take us on a lyrical journey that reverberates through time. Hopefully this play will be produced far & wide.