←Recommendations of The Window

A delightfully funny play contrasting the jaded world view of a cat with the childlike wonder of a fish, while offering insight into the great questions of philosophy: why are we here? what can we hope to accomplish? and why did that woman drive on the median strip?

All the comments below are dead-on, but consider also the inventiveness of characterization and dialogue with which Tristen Canfield distinguishes the limited consciousness of Sherman the fish with the far greater awareness of Wuzzums the cat. And yet even so the fish bowl and apartment are but the tiniest of settings far removed from the world outside with its car accidents and what-not. This is a brilliant philosophical debate about the nature of consciousness, friendship, death, and the limitations of all creatures' ability to grasp the world.

There's a lot to unpack here in a very short read, and I could probably spend an hour or two doing so! But my biggest takeaway is of course they're friends, or Fish would be dead. Even that is a heavy concept.

This is one of the most ambitious, far-reaching ten-minute plays I've ever read.

When people wonder why the 10-minute play, we must all point them to this one! A feast! A philosophy! A slice of life so juicy and brilliant, I boggle at the mind of Tristen Canfield. What a wonderful play! I hope it lives a long well-produced life!

A confection of intellectual absurdism exploring the standards, implementation, and meaning of friendship, discourse and existence both quotidian and moment-to-moment. As one cat ponders the nature, purpose and consequences of the world in which it lives in order to stave off boredom, a fish lives for each moment, good or bad, with the gusto of a true innocent unencumbered by knowledge. It's also a hoot!

This play is comedy in repetition while asking the simple questions that mean so much.

This comic short play excels because of Canfield's gift at creating contrasting characters. Actors will love performing the roles of Fish and Cat, who have vastly different world views. This is a lively, lovely light comedy. Produce it!

The costume and scenic design possibilities make this play a must-produce play. Fun for kids and their parents. Or maybe just their parents. This will be a hit with any audience. One of my favorite plays with animals on NPX.

You may stop writing 10-minute plays now. For Tristen Canfield has written the perfect 10-minute play, bar none. I first had the pleasure of watching this during Spokane Civic Theatre's Playwrights Forum Festival in 2015 and I haven't shut up about it since. It's a heartfelt commentary on the nature of humanity from two souls perhaps best poised to reflect upon it - a fish and a cat in a window - and it's damn hilarious, poignant, insightful and wonderful. I'm so glad to see it here on NPX, so that you too, Fellow Playwright, can rejoice in its existence.