←Recommendations of A Ten-Minute Comedy

The narcissistic conventions of the baby/bridal shower industrial complex are artfully skewered in this darkly amusing comedy. There is an undercurrent of melancholy that occasionally breaks through the surface to give the piece its emotional heft. I imagine this piece would leave an audience breathless with laughter while also being moved by Andrea's sense of loss under the hilarity.

Funny, biting, poignant - three words to describe this short slice of life dark comedy piece that feels very now.

Turning the money-churning wedding/baby/whatever shower business on its head, Lavinia Roberts does a great job of twisting the knife into the wounds of separation and heartache to a hilarious parody of the business of exploiting happiness in a tour-de-force of bubbly cynicism and pent-up anger. At the Midwest Dramatists Conference 2023, the actor playing Andrea pulled out all the stops, and the result left us laughing and wiping away tears.

Wow - quirky and satirical - this short play that I had the pleasure of seeing at the Midwest Dramatist Conference was a true force. ROBERTS' hilarious plays on standard baby shower, wedding shower games were delightful and just the right amount of cringe. This monologue is the perfect example that a monologue shouldn't be written unless a character is ready to explode. Andrea is cocked and loaded, and we, as audience members, benefit from her trauma.

This is a fantastic one-actor play that KILLED at its staged reading at the 2023 Midwest Dramatists Conference. The playwright spoke after and mentioned she structured this piece similarly to how the Upright Citizen's Brigade structures their comedy with a base reality and escalating beats of humorous oddity. I'm a big UCB fan, so this is right up my alley. Lots of laugh-out-loud moments capped with a surprisingly poignant ending. Well done!