←Recommendations of The New Galileos

How far are we from the day when what is happening in this play is a reality? Is that reality now in ways? Berryman has brilliantly taken a pressing issue that faces our world and crafted a thrilling drama about courage and the importance of speaking truth to power. These are the plays we need today. This is the art that will be the cries of anguish and signals of hope in the dark times we are facing.

I think this is one of the few plays that had me at the edge of my seat, where I gasped out loud, and this was just a reading that I saw mind you. Amy wrote such a timely, political thriller. She makes me think and strikes fear in my heart. I'm not only afraid for these three characters that are written so eloquently, but I'm afraid because Berryman really creates a not too distant future that feels almost inevitable.

So many great things are explored in this piece - women in STEM, complex and current issues, and a killer open ending included. I'd like to think that this is dystopian, but it's also incredibly reminiscent of US-sponsored "disappearances" in Argentina and Chile, adding layers of complexity to an already layered and remarkably theatrical piece. Read it, produce it, and listen on The Parsnip Ship!

Set in a world where scientific fact becomes a threat, and restrictions on the free press have silenced debate, a last act of defiance comes when a daughter's well intentioned gesture and a children's book are seen as plots to overthrow the government. Berryman has created a chilling yet plausible near future. When the truth of the protagonists imprisonment is revealed, and a truly ominous villain offers salvation, we are brought full circle into the nature of scientific progress as a constant fight against the powers threatened by it. Berryman has transformed scientific debate into a tight thriller.

A wonderfully thrilling and engrossing piece! All of the characters are distinct and compelling, and the action moves briskly and with mounting tension. Prescient and terrifying to read in our socio-political climate in the US, but all the more important to do so because of it. I love how Berryman succeeds at navigating and exploring a nuanced discussion of "upstandership," activism, and the power of individuals to make change or be complicit in the status quo. In fully fleshing out her unique and specific premise, Berryman succeeds in rendering a universal rumination on these topics.

I've listened to this play on the Parsnip Ship podcast and fell in love with it. It is beautifully, heroically written. The characters are all different, intelligent, and compelling. I would see this show onstage in a heartbeat.

I heard this play read on the Parsnip Ship podcast, and it's my favorite of that series. A very chilling and not-quite-as-far-fetched-as-we'd-like scenario of the government using extraordinary means of coercion to alter the conversation on climate change to a way that suits them at a terrible human cost. The writing is disciplined and compelling, the characters distinct.