←Recommendations of 28 Light Years From Now

This play reminded me why I chose theatre as my profession. Absolutely stunning work.

A moving story of love, loss and heartbreak as one works out the meaning of it all. Well done.

I had the pleasure of seeing a virtual reading of 28 Light Years From Now. I enjoyed watching this sweeping intergenerational love story and especially appreciated that it features an all female cast. Whether they are the one to go off to war or are the one being left behind, all of these characters are written with a beautiful inner strength, which made me reflect on the powerful women in my own life.

Playwrights Foundation enthusiastically recommends this play 28 LIGHT YEARS FROM NOW, as a Semi-Finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival 2020. We were moved by the quality of the writing and the relevant and compelling themes that spoke to the mission of our festival. It excelled in a competitive process of 735 plays submitted this year and rose to the top after a six month long process discussing its merits with both national and local Bay Area readers, and we hope it moves swiftly towards production.

Premiere Stages is pleased to recognize “28 Light Years From Now” by Rachel Bykowski as a semifinalist for the 2020 Premiere Play Festival. “28 Light Years...” rose through a competitive selection process conducted by Premiere staff and a panel of outside theatre professionals to become one of 26 semifinalists out of 939 submissions. The panel was particularly impressed by how the characters are so robust and full of life, and found the double-casting to be an effective decision. The premise and the scenes in the field between Josie and and Fran are highly compelling. Our congratulations and thanks to Rachel.

There are so many black holes. The black holes of war. The black holes of love. Bykowski has her characters dance around them trying to avoid them and also willing themselves to be consumed by them. It’s a world where stars contain hearts and hearts contain universes. A beautiful play about love, family, holding on and letting go. Brava to the three strong actress roles and throwing out a wish that this gets produced often - now and at least for the next 25 light years from now.

"...what is in the past, stays there and you can’t change a single thing about it." A painful play about dealing with the grief of losing a loved one be it a mother, a daughter, a lover, a life, a future to war, not only repeating itself throughout our world history, but within oneself as the characters fight to find their life's purpose and deal with the consequences of that neverending search. I feel that we can all relate to the obsessive search for answers to heartbreak, learning how to accept the past and finally let it go.

*happy, delighted squeal* What a lovely, charming, lovely - I know I said it twice - play. Bykowski has written an irresistible love story (several times over) that breaks your heart (several times over) with complicated, flawed, wonderfully strong characters. Literally, every character here is a force to be reckoned with, in the best possible way. Expect to see this one produced in a lot of festivals, and expect a lot of teary eyes from the audience. To a T, each of Bykowski's lovely characters lays their hearts bare. One of the best plays NPX has to offer. A gem.