←Recommendations of The Good Boy Game

This play is a pure mindfuck. A dissection of toxic masculinity and modern-day therapy methods. I don't want to give anything away but just read this play and be amazed by Vermillion's brilliant writing.

Really wonderful in its subversion of a subject where so many could see only low-hanging fruit. Patrick plants that fruit in deep soil, waters them with un-shy exploration, bringing to bear plants with black shade *and* resonant nourishment.

Phew! What a wildly astute, sharp, and unsettling play about masculinity, violence, and radicalization. This is one of the few plays in which the characters both have these specific and compelling (albeit heightened and satirical) character arcs and truths, while also being finely drawn metaphors for huge, topical social issues and political discourse. In James, Vermillion illustrates just how close beneath the surface of real "normal" men is the capacity for hatred and violence and how that is tied to social expectations of masculinity and manhood. The ending is quite a gut punch!

This play is simple, bloody, and barrels forward so fast that you don't even realize it's taken you to hell. It's characters are topical but forces are elemental; it features the central war of many of Patrick's plays: a rotted man who's impervious to change and a woman of exceptional grace who will spare no dignity to change him.

A raw, unflinching look at a uniquely American phenomenon, with a few moments that made me clutch my head to keep my brain from leaking out of my ears (and I mean that as the highest compliment). This play asks some very trenchant questions--who is responsible for the violence and anger that infects so many young men and boys? Are people born bad? Can people ever really change?--in a way that is extremely provocative, but purposeful. It's everything I hope for in a new play, and one I'm going to be thinking about for a very long time.

To say that Patrick captured the complicated relationship between parents and children would be an understatement. The Good Boy Game takes the reader on the twisted negotiation of “goodness”. Patrick never shies away from the dark hearts of his characters and unapologetic way in which he approaches this story kept me on edge all the way through.

It is the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's pleasure to recommend Patrick Vermillion and their play The Good Boy Game as a finalist for our 2020 National Playwrights Conference. This particular work emerged from a highly competitive, anonymous, and multi-tiered selection process to become one of 63 finalists out of more than 1,500 submissions. This enthralling piece galvanized the hearts and theatrical imaginations of our reading teams and is fully championed by our offices. We are honored to put our enthusiastic support behind this writer and their ongoing contributions to the American Theater.

I could not stop reading this play, no matter how nasty it got. Vicious and unsentimental at one moment, brutally and affectingly honest the next, this piece is about as dark a comedy as you can get and manages to excel at both the darkness and the comedy while presenting a biting satirical portrait of entitlement.

A truly dark and disturbing play that looks at toxic masculinity and violence in a totally different way than I’ve seen before. I didn’t know where the story was going from one page to the next, and it was both hard to read and, at times, laugh-out-loud funny. This is a play that will provoke a wildly polarized reaction amongst audiences—which is appropriately reflective of the subject matter itself.

Patrick does a great job at balancing comedy, social commentary, and drama in this play. It is dark and absurd while at the same time seeming all too familiar. Patrick consistently writes well rounded characters and has a unique skill for writing about toxic masculinity without seeming preachy. All of that is in this play.