←Recommendations of Black Hollow

This play is a quiet heartbreaker, telling a story that can only be told in America and telling it with great empathy, care and nuance. Recalling the small town life of Our Town, but set in the fractured world of today, Hemphill shows us our worst, most isolated selves, but also our best selves, with characters reaching across the chasms of grief and confusion to try to make sense of the senseless and connection with each other.

A heartbreaking and moving play about the tragedy of gun violence that never ends. The beauty of community coming together to heal and hopefully one day make for a better world is beautifully portrayed. Well done.

Black Hollow is a moving, heart-felt, and disturbingly empathetic play about school shootings. This is a play that understands that tragedies like school shootings don't start when the first bullet is fired and don't end when the last body drops.

'Black Hollow' is a wonderful piece about how communities come together in the midst of tragedy, a theme that seems too relevant right now. Hemphill has taken one of the nightmares of American life and transformed it into a play about healing together. The characters are incredibly fleshed-out, each having their own voice and motivations; the interactions between them flow so naturally. Excellent piece.

This is an exquisitely gorgeous theatrical poem! Like a mosaic or quilt, characters, places, and moments weave in and out of focus. The overall effect feels grounded, complete, and very much something more profound than just the sum of its parts. Like RIMERS OF ELDRITCH and LARAMIE PROJECT, BLACK HOLLOW balances individual humanity and nuanced characters with a fully-rendered community. A quiet and poignant treatment of mass shootings and a potent examination of small town alienation. I hope to see this beautifully theatrical work on its feet!

Black Hollow is haunting and relevant, a beautifully quiet play that screams about an issue that becomes more and more prevalent by the moment. Using structural devices that mirror what the lead-up, experience, and aftermath of a tragedy is, Hemphill weaves a compassionate look at a horrific event. This is a great ensemble piece for any group looking to face deeply American issues head on.

Whoa. Black Hollow is incredible--one of the most human treatments of a relevant hot button and potentially controversial subject I've read in a long time. A juicy plot full of very human characters that make you think, make you feel, and never lets you go.

Black Hollow is a lovely, probing play with a number of tricks up its sleeve. Hemphill starts with an Our Town overture that hurtles swiftly into one of the more sickeningly recognizable tragedies of modern American life. On the other side of that tragedy, the play transforms and grows two new branches -- one a forensic examination of how violence is nurtured in our communities and most intimate relationships, the other a sensitive and finally hopeful story of survivors attempting to overcome trauma. This is a wonderful ensemble piece with roles for all ages.

Aeneas's play "Black Hollow" is sweet and haunting in all the best ways. It takes the scary and relevant topic of gun control, and explores it in a very human and fascinating way. The play is a call to action but at the same time the piece stands on it's own as gorgeous literature and a juicy and emotionally deep play for a big group of actors to sink their teeth in.

"There’s no word in the English language...for a mother who has lost her child."

"Black Hollow" is a play that grows more relevant by the day. A lesser playwright attempting to write about gun violence might become mired in melodrama. But Hemphill deftly avoids that trap, confidently weaving together the stories of these small town Americans by focusing on their shared humanity, rather than sensationalized trauma. What remains is a restrained, finely-crafted story about resilience and self-reflection in the face of tragedy.