←Recommendations of PARTNER OF —

I feel so lucky to have seen a reading of this play at the 2018 Midwest Dramatists Conference. Upon the first few lines, I was excited immediately by the activeness of Carnes' language and her ability to tell stories through temporal, geographical, and architectural space. There is so much exquisite attention to detail, yet the play is also emotionally powerful and painful and deeply alive. This is a play with important stories that works beautifully in multiple layers and on multiple planes. I was personally transported to multiple places while watching.

Lyrical and sadly beautiful, and the author treats the subject with the care and respect it deserves. Very lucky to have heard it in person at MDC Conference 2018. It received a great reception.

A kick to the gut.
Powerful.
The Beauty lies in the Rawness.
Rewrites history the way history should have been written in the first place.
Truth.

Very lyrical, poetic play about the sad life of Sally Hemings and familial cycles of abuse and hardship. The words are beautiful even as the subject matter is vile and ugly. This one has really stuck with me!

This haunting and lyrical play confronts the original sin of America -- slavery -- and brings it to a level that is devastatingly personal. This is a play about history, but it also speaks to our time, and it will not go quietly in to the gentle fiction that we have come to accept about one of our Founding Fathers. This is an important and timely play.

A hypnotic and evocative drama that deals with some of the heaviest themes. It's timeless quality is what makes it timely, and after reading this play you are saddened that this is a timeless play. Nevertheless, it is a play whose structure and beauty will leave you repeating lines and feeling a shiver at such sadness and horror. It lampoons one of our great sacred cows in America and makes you feel intense emotion for the sins of the past.

What was accepted in times past is horrifying to us now. Even though this is a perfect, historic play, it makes me think about what things today we give little thought to that future generations will find abhorrent. The dialogue seems so right in Carnes' play that we're transported to that place, in that time, in that small, windowless room. Brilliant.

A lyrical and evocative poetry/drama using stylized rythmic dialogue, with key lines punctuated by silence or interruption, this piece gives dignity and introspection to slave women trampled by history, racism, and the patriarchy. A beautiful, melancholy piece.

This is an extremely powerful play. The structure is phenomenal, the language is gorgeous, the characters--the whole play leaves a desperate ache in my chest. The fact that this play is still pertinent NOW is what really chills me. Carnes is respectful, but she is unafraid--and the light that she shines on the underbelly of our history and our CURRENT society is blinding and condemning. We need more plays like this. I see a long production history for this powerful play. I hope universities and companies get their hands on it and put it on its feet.

I stand in awe of this work. This brilliant re imaging of history and these characters who keep talking about wanting such a simple thing as a window in their room. The words and actions become heartbreak itself. None of us can ever apologize for the wrongdoings that were the make up of our history, but by seeing Carnes play on stage, we can hope it opens one heart, one soul, one mind that is able to keep growing and healing to make a better place at the table we call humanity.