←Recommendations of Lucky

LUCKY is a deeply haunting play of survival where the story of Haiti/DR is told through a 16-year old girl's eyes. This play is a deep river, flowing between past and present as the Waitress is writing her novel in search of cultural knowledge, and finds both beauty and trauma. Every scene is a deeply intimate look at a raw and tragic experience. I've been fortunate to encounter Pharel's work dramatizing characters whose bodies hold so much generational pain, and I can feel the writer's intentional care for both her characters and the audience as we embrace them together.

LUCKY is a beautiful, layered journey. Both the Waitress and the characters from her world, as well as Lucky and the other characters from the world of the story-within-a-story, were drawn and painted with exquisite detail. I loved the way that the Waitress found herself and what she wanted from her own life as she told her protagonist's story.

A heart-stoppingly beautiful piece that deftly weaves time and space together with subtle magic. It contains a great deal of suffering and pain, but also deep tenderness, love, and even joy. Sometimes, choosing hope is the most radical thing you can do.

How Lucky are we? The play brings to light the journey of a dark-as-night woman finding her place in the world. She loves to write, to create, to embrace and to love. These are gifts until they feel like they no longer are. This story is about the power she has to write her story and be the author of herstory. When the world is on fire, let this play be performed. It's fireproof.

A riveting, deliriously poetic journey through love, war, and triumph and violence both physical and mental is documented in this incredible play. We are treated to Caribbean history through a mythic filter that renders everything more epic even as it clarifies the dominant themes of exploitation and oppression. I am also really impressed that the frame story is as engaging and interesting as the larger narrative. Compelling work by Pharel.

Pharel weaves this complex story of identity with a beautiful, evocative touch. As firm in its stance as it is gentle in its delivery, you are moved by Lucky and the world she fights to find herself in. A stunning exploration of form and use of theatre as an art. I'm BEGGING someone to stage this gorgeous play. From reading it in early drafts to seeing it staged as a reading, I've hung on every word and think about it often.