←Recommendations of Blue

A lovely, lovely play. The repeating narrative ominously erodes a romanticized image before our eyes, and before we know it, we have witnessed the collapse of a proud hero into a frightened boy. A play about the lies we tell about loved ones, and for them. Bravo.

Another beautiful and moving play from Hageman that investigates story and memory, tragedy and family and love. I keep saying it, but this is a playwright to watch.

This play begins with a sense of wonder and then becomes so heavy and tragic. I'm envious of Hageman's ability to capture the fragility pf three people and their relationships to each other while conveying pressures we put onto ourselves and onto others. The instinct is to mourn for these characters but it's hard to forget Lilith's first line "This could be a sad story, but I’ve decided it’s not." and to see it as a call to action to be better to ourselves and our loved ones. I LOVE this play.

At first Lilith is told to think of her grandpa as a hero. But as she grows older, she comes to recognize the depth of her grandfather's flaws and eventual suicide, as well as her grandmother's inability to hold on to the myth of her husband as an idealized figure. In this sweetly lyric and elegiac play about Lilith’s growth of perception, she decides ultimately to see both grandparents as worthy of admiration and compassion, and not to disparage the grandfather who killed himself out of guilt even though it meant not seeing not seeing his granddaughter grow up.

You read things sometimes that you know are good, but then they just hit that next level and leave you with the feeling that you've just read something magical. This is how Emily's play "Blue" was for me. I knew there was poetry with the construction of it and I knew the writing was great, but the emotions pulled from me at the end were unexpected and for that I applaud this wonderful short play. What a treat for any actors to be involved with as well as the theater who puts it on.

After all time has passed, the heroes and learners of history have only ever been these characters. How we choose to remember our loved ones in the face of their all-too-human imperfections is how myths and legends are created and how love expresses itself. It's not easy to find out that the titans of our lives are not what we made them to be, but Hageman is able to let her characters retain dignity in their flawed state. A tender play with a rhythm that reflects the arc of family histories and personal tragedies buried under stories of triumph.