←Recommendations of Message of Pain

A sci-fi play that will have you hooked as we take this journey with Xara. Is it real or is it a simulation?

Amazing. All heart, all beauty, all power. I expect these things of Partain, and she more than delivers every time. Chilling, powerful, beautiful, frightening. I love this piece.

A sci-fi story we don't really see with a wonderfully complex role for an actress.

This play was fun to see read at the Mid-America Theatre Conference. I enjoyed the multiple dilemmas and interpretations the audience is led to grapple with and ponder. Partain does a good job of building not one but two worlds in this short play, which encompasses the best of the sci-fi genre - futuristic without losing it's footing in humanity. Well done.

The Message of Pain is a haunting piece of science fiction that skillfully depicts the fragility of human life and the emptiness that's results from isolation and a life devoid of the simple pleasures of human connection. It's a bleak play, but one that also leaves us feeling thankful for the time and relationships we have.

I had the pleasure of seeing a reading of this play at the Mid-American Theatre Conference and had numerous emotional experiences while breathing it in. Partain beautifully and smartly creates many layers of devastation while also offering the audience delightful mental puzzles and memorable, crushing, desperate images.

A powerfully-wrought sci-fi exploration, with tight characterizations centered on a devastating reveal. Partain builds a distant world so artfully, we *feel* like it's all happening right here, right now. Charging, yet sympathetic and profound. I'm going to be wrestling with this play's philosophical poignancy for a good, long while.

so great. a dream role for any actress!

There is no “forever” and that truth is painfully up front and personal in Partain’s play. Even in sci-if, where you can imagine any possibility, Partain goes for the reality of the human condition. The play is circular as is life. It has a strong engine which goes full throttle to an ending that tears at you but you can’t imagine another possibility. The role of Xara is a dream part for an actress.

THE MESSAGE OF PAIN asks us to consider what the best answer would be when faced with one of the most adverse scenarios imaginable. Partain does not give us easy answers and forces us to interrogate the value of truth and illusion and how it fits in creating a meaningful existence. Her answer, ultimately, is not surprising given the circumstances, but no less heartrending. You'll be left thinking and you'll grow more deeply in love with those whom you care for by the play's end. A beautiful exploration of the human condition by Lindsay Partain. I highly recommend this play.