←Recommendations of Dog

This play is like a bullet that's hit you in the skull and is slowly burrowing its way towards your brain, hitting different receptors as it wiggles through. The tension is thick and the realization of both the subtle and unsubtle weaponry of familial abuse is superb. The central metaphor and its transformative (literally) effect on the characters is one of the best and simplest-yet-most-tangible expressions of how gaslighting derails our perceptions, challenging the audience to feel as unsteady as Alice while the world shifts beneath her feet.

I actually found myself breathing out an air of relief and my muscles finally relaxed when I got to the end of this play. High tension from beat one. Absolutely dark and real in a very surreal manner. It's a heartbreaking picture of the cycles of abuse.

A remarkable metaphor for abuse and a powerful exploration. After taking in a stray, we examine the very nature of abuse and gaslighting. Fantastic work.

Once again, Pazniokas astonishes. Her writing is so brave. Profound in its simplicity, this play is the perfect example of the kind of deeply compelling, straightforward yet unconventional drama she creates that leave you transformed. Any theatremaker worth their salt should be terrified of approaching such demanding material but at the same time relish the chance to sink their teeth into work this good.

This is one of the best plays about abusive family dynamics I've ever read. I'd love to see how this would play out onstage. Elmo's evolution is terrifying. The defending and blame and gas-lighting is all too real. The moment when Elmo first 'speaks' and gives their list of demands is absolutely thrilling, disorienting theater. Really wonderful.

I feel like in the hands of a lesser writer this allegorical play would come off as obvious and lazy but Pazniokas has crafted some really complicated characters and has them tell this story in unique and surprising ways. I don't think I've seen the cycle of abuse portrayed on stage like this. The playwright draws on well known truths and even aspects of theatre of the past (anybody else getting a Streetcar Named Desire vibe from this) to create this experimental, fantasy play that I'll be thinking about for awhile.

I love the seeming simplicity of this play, the bare bones on which hang the chilling emotional realities of abuse within a family. I didn't question the reality of the play at all. It's very cleverly written so that I understood completely the underlying threat without it being stated. What really came through for me is the feeling that children who have been abused have, that it was somehow their fault.