←Recommendations of Potato Salad with Raisins (Monologue)

The fact that there are plays about school shootings is heartbreaking. Paul depicts one mother as she tries to clear up after all the food the well wishing neighbours have donated, a true yet surreal backdrop to the horror which she has had to endure and the grief which follows. Very moving.

This is so timely, unfortunately. And hopefully, someday, it won't be. But this piece shook me to silence, just like Calvin. The way we deal with unbearable grief, it's all so different from human to human. The emotions both parents (on stage and off) are feeling come across so clear. This will be a powerhouse monologue to witness.

A mother's surprise over raisins added to potato salad shows how disorienting grief can be after a senseless school shooting. We also feel her pain in the thought of cleaning up dishes by well-intentioned neighbors and understand the urge to break all the dishes to deal with the anger raging inside her. Donnelly's superb monologue is heartbreaking in its timeliness, and I had to see when it was written, which was in 2019. Sadly, it is even more timely today, and this is a monologue that desperately needs to be seen and heard.

The heartbreaking pain of a mother after she's lost her child is captured in this powerful piece. Well done.

This short monologue hits you hard in the heart. Those that lost a love one to gun violence or not could relate to the scene and restraint and burst of emotions. This woman's anger is also our own at the system that doesn't care about children in the crosshairs. Read and consider this for your staged reading or production on gun control.