←Recommendations of The Forest

The Forest is a deeply empathetic dramedy about loss. Despite dealing with heavy topics like dementia and divorce, the writing never loses its natural buoyancy or humor. Lia Romeo has an immense gift for crafting complicated characters and for consistently shifting the power dynamics of their relationships. Crackling with humanity, The Forest is a beautiful play about a mother and daughter struggling to stay rooted to the ground.

Like its namesake, THE FOREST grows quietly and imperceptibly into a powerful immovable force that examines the interdependence of life and the ties that bind. Its characters-- Juliet, Pam, Miguel and Andrew-- each seek the light in their own tangle of branches and brush, occasionally coming together for a moment in the sun. I found this play to be an exceptionally empathetic and perceptive about what it is to be in another’s shoes. THE FOREST is a story about mothers and daughters, about the mistakes we all make, about dreams lost or deferred and most of all, about love.

Grabbed me right from the start with Juliet's angry, honest, funny dialogue. Filled with truths (some of the divorce talk is almost exactly what a friend of mine experienced when she was going through it -"there's nowhere that's mine anymore.") But even with the important subject matter, the play did not feel heavy. The element of the forest added something extra to a piece, revealing to me, symbolism of "what's real/not " -- dementia, as well as "escape/unknown" -- Juliet's relationship with Andrew. Small and moves quickly - seems like it would be a great choice for production.

I love Lia's plays because they are so deceptively simple, but so decidedly complex. The characters are people we know in situations we recognize, but skillful, careful crafting makes those situations by turns fraught, poignant, frightening... Best of all, the scenes always add up to an inevitable whole that is never easy or neat--like life. This is another great one in that vein.