←Recommendations of APEX PREDATOR

Carnes amps up the tension brilliantly in the short span of this play. It pulled me along and had me anxiously flipping pages. Technically, it's reserved enough to succeed in just about any ten minute play festival, so if you're looking for a short play tackling big issues, this may be the one!

Wow. The fear and anger and TENSION is so palpable. I had no clue where this eerie piece was headed, and I would still love to read more. I specifically thought the self-awareness of our two antagonists was interesting here. Just like Margaret, we never knew how serious these two were, or what their real intentions were. It's expertly crafted and unexpectedly frightening.

The tension in this piece is present almost from the word go and I found myself moving back and forth on trying to figure out what these guys were going to do. Its such a powerful piece that offers three characters you can believe in and feel concern or distain for. Couple all of that with an ending that leaves you DYING to know what happens next and Rachael has created the prefect mixture for a play that will entertain, invoke an emotive response and leave an audience wanting more!

The realism throughout this play makes it so believable. How a couple of jerks out camping can, when building each other up, turn quite nasty.
Carnes sets the scene perfectly, the tension builds towards a gripping ending then the finale is a perfect cliff hanger.
Great!

In this tour de force, Carnes manages in just ten minutes to create a world that is so insidiously terrifying because it is so believable. APEX PREDATOR captures so many issue of the here and now within a timeless story of psychological – and potentially physical – terror.

The best and most effective horror has, at a minimum, a seed of truth at the center. What made this piece so harrowing to me is that I've been in similar situations, and I know I'm not the only one. It brings the scenario from the hypothetical to the visceral, forcing the audience to engage and imagine what they'd do in a similar situation. Most brilliantly, it works on two levels: as an exploration of toxic, patriarchal manhood and as a meditation on environmental destruction. It is full of horrific visuals and even more horrific truths. Gorgeous, terrifying, necessary theatre.

This play had my stomach clenched as the tension escalates from unwanted prying to antagonizing to straight horror as Margaret faces two soulless predators.

Well that had my heart in my throat from beginning to end! Carnes creates a suspenseful narrative with a sympathetic central character and two monstrous, but credible antagonists. As the threat to Margaret escalates the horror grows more gripping and inescapable.

Ms. Carnes creates a suspenseful horrific drama that's sure to give anyone the chills. Sure to generate conversation about sexual assault and protecting the environment, her two male characters are over the top boorish clods that unfortunately can be found too often in today's society.

RACHAEL CARNES’ “Apex Predator” dramatically heightens the suspense in which Margaret is comforted with an very uncomfortable situation. This short play is well-written.