←Recommendations of If Only in My Dreams (Ten Minute)

A very impactful plays that delves in family dynamics, addiction, and guilt. Donnelly expertly humanizes the characters in this play, which makes it all the more fulfilling when you're left with hope at the end of the play. This is a play that sticks with you.

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.

There are quite a few Christmas stories that tell of hauntings for past mistakes or regrets and that is what Paul has captured here. You can feel Lillian's frustration in the back and forth between her and Audrey. There's a delicately balanced tone to the conversation between Lillian desperately wanting to just enjoy her Christmas with her grandson but the guilt clinging on in the background. Although the subject matter is dark I believe this piece would make a great piece for a Christmas show, to show that you can still find moments of hope in something dark.

Absolutely tragic, life affirming, and beautiful. So many will connect with first holidays after trauma and loss. The ghosts of moments past surround all of us if we are truly listening. Such a lovely testament to survial.

I'm relieved I didn't read this at Christmas time, for I know there would have been tears. This is such a sad ghost story, full of regret and despair, yet with the arrival of Nan-nans grandson, there is new hope.
Very well written in a Blythe Spirit way. I do hope Nan can find a way to find a way to make peace with the ghost of her daughter.
Very moving.

Paul Donnelly provides a powerful look at family guilt and how multiple lives are impacted by an individual’s struggle with addiction. Set during Christmas, the play is both a reminder that holidays can be especially stressful where family dynamics are concerned and that perhaps they can offer a glimmer of hope. Well worth presenting any time of year.

Such a heartbreaking tale of family dynamics through illness and holiday stress. The voices are very real and distinct. You have hope for Dusty and Lillian to make a better Christmas for themselves this year, as they place a literal star atop the tree to guide them.

A moving play about guilt, recrimination, and the ties that bind. The secrets and lies hidden beneath just trying to get through each day intact. Playwright Paul Donnelly has written a beautiful holiday play that hits you right in the gut. In ten minutes he deftly shows us the devastation that addiction brings to everyone involved...and how we must still keep going with our lives. There's always...Chicago.