The first holiday without a loved one is tough, even — maybe especially — if your relationship with that loved one was complicated. This brave play tackles an example of those complicated relationships head-on and finds hope in creating new traditions and working through the old ones.

This time of year I love reading holiday plays and my favorites are the poignant kind that have a mixture of something sharp with the sweet. In IF ONLY IN MY DREAMS, Paul Donnelly expertly weaves a much longer story into 10 minutes, delivering reveals and surprises at the perfect moments. It's a story of guilt and forgiveness that's creatively explored through both dialogue and action. And the characters he's created will stay with you long afterward, too.

Paul does a great job with the dialogue between the characters, both in terms of how it reveals the dynamics between them and the cadence of the language. An original and unique take on the spirits that visit us during the holidays and their manifestation of the guilt the main character feels over the death of her daughter.