←Recommendations of a witness

Henry excels at balance. Her fluidity and pacing, her marriage of meditative and passionate, her tempo and drive, all lead to a play compelling in its exploration of grief, mourning, and the bravery required to move forward. I was pulled in from its first moments, and it held me until its last.

Jordan Elizabeth Henry’s A WITNESS explores the terrain of grief, guilt, loss, and finally - courage - through its wholly unique, beautifully-drawn characters whose witty repartee leaps off the page and onto the stage. A wonderful testament to the power of forgiveness, especially of oneself...

I enjoyed getting to know each character and their tethers to each other and the world. The art show first scene is very compelling and a great introduction to the rest of the script.

I was lucky to see a scene from this beautiful play read that one scene grabbed me and I knew that this play would be one that I would love. I love Henry's writing and I love that you can say so much in so little dialogue and that is a talent that I don't have and Henry does. This play is about coming to terms with one own's mortality, but also about making the most of what the gods have dealt each of us and to be a witness for all the others that exist here and now.

A compelling and heartbreaking piece! I loved the complexity of each of the characters and the way the relationships intertwined and built off of one another. Through each character we saw vastly different approaches to grief, death, regret, and re-building.

What a glorious piece! Billie is such a dynamic, well-rendered, complex character with a well of sadness and grief covered by some of the best and most natural sardonic humor I've seen captured in dialogue. All of the characters who orbit around her are compelling and sympathetic, even as they do and say self-destructive and questionable things. In Nathan, Henry has made visible an astute and compassionate portrait of a major depressive episode. All throughout, the punctuating meditation interludes deepen this poignant exploration of grief, letting go, the importance of relationships, and one's responsibility to themselves and their health.

'A Witness' is a wonderfully pensive play that explores structures of connectedness and what happens when things 'end'. The characters and their dialogue feel effortlessly contemporary and relatable, which really drew me in as the pages flew by; furthermore, watching Queer and Femme characters navigating the realm of depression, chronic illness, and assisted suicide was very refreshing and never taken lightly. Really enjoyed this play!

Billie, who makes no effort to hide her cynicism, cares nothing about life, save perhaps for the ones near to being lost. Professionally, life brings Chuck, a terminally ill patient, but with the wits which meet their match, bringing Billie down from jaundiced to sardonic. Privately, life brings Nathan, weighed down indefinitely inside Billie's apartment, who were it not for his being so heavily guilt-ridden, would otherwise have no reasonable objection to never seeing him again. Henry's play pits patience towards the desperate, somber reflection with mortal introspection, and our curiously elusive autonomy in the face of a corporeal inevitability.

A Witness is a sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking story of what it means to be show up for the people in our lives. One of the things I loved in the play is how we understand why Billie, an end-of-life nurse, has fashioned such thick emotional armor, why she behaves in ways that makes it almost impossible for anyone to get close. There are moments of real sweetness in the play, where we see how people find comfort, solace -- how preparing for death means showing up for life, and what it takes to do that.

A lovely play that gains its force from simple moments, everyday gestures, and natural dialogue. Voluntary assisted dying is a weighty subject, but those expecting something lugubrious may be surprised. The play and the characters are full of life and love, and the passing of one of the characters is treated with the utmost compassion and a recognition of death as a phase of life. I also can’t fail to mention how witty much of the dialogue is and how specific and unique the voices of the characters are. An impressive work overall.