←Recommendations of Your First Pet and the Street You Grew Up On

Saw this play read on Tiny Theatre Grab Bag Theatre. Parenting is one thing that can bring such love and joy to you and it's sad that even in this day and age we allow society's religious rules dictate our love and feelings toward our own children. Heartbreaking and heartfelt and we can only hope that one day religion sees it's final days where they instill hatred into the "souls" of their parishioners and let everyone just shine as who they are

The cadence of back-and-forth in this short drama is sharp. Statement, response, counter-response that reveal a lot about these 50-something characters, and perhaps not who an audience might expect. Realistic drama, told well.

Wow! What an interesting tableau Cathro set's up here. Weirdly appropriate, two people have the much needed conversation they didn't know they needed to have, and under a twisted set of circumstances. What should have never worked as meaningful dialogue because of the state the two people start this play in, instead takes on additional gravitas due to the honesty displayed. This is moving and thoughtful.

In the wonderfully weird and wild DC Cathro canon, YOUR FIRST PET AND THE STREET YOU GREW UP ON occupies a special niche for the brutally heartbreaking honesty of its two heartbreakingly mismatched characters. This is an outstanding work from an outstanding playwright, a stinging jewel in his tiara. (Full disclosure: I initially intended to write “shining jewel,” but it autocorrected to “stinging,” and I decided to leave it because for once, autocorrect was ducking correct.)

YOUR FIRST PET AND THE STREET YOU GREW UP ON is an assassin of a play, we're lulled into a sense of security and then DC Cathro pulls the rug from under us. Cathro's characters are everything but one dimensional, and the situation they're in is anything but fantasy. A very real look at a very real subject, and DC Cathro has done it wonderfully. Read it, and produce it.

Stop me if you've heard this before: "a couple fights, we find out why, we get a clear resolution. Polite applause. Everyone goes home, anesthetized against the vale of tears." It's practically stock.

Unless you're DC Cathro.

I will not reveal how he thrice subverts one of the most tried and tired storytelling scaffolds. Neither will I divulge the rich characters and their shockingly honest motivations. I will not spoil this play by telling you what to expect.

Where others throw kitchen sinks to make their points onstage, he uses a swift dagger right to the heart.

Read this now.

This a powerhouse gem of a play. My favorite stories are the ones that make us laugh, then make us stop. They make us go "woah." They make us think. And then they go one step further than we ever imagined. Without spoiling any of the twists in Cathro’s astounding play, I will simply say it is worthy of your attention. It demands it. It is funny, it is heart-wrenching, it is timely, and it’s a hell of an accomplishment in just under ten minutes. The title is also perfect. Highly recommend.

The assumptions we have about people we think we know can lull us into a false sense of security, and that's where DC Cathro leads us with this short, sharp play. Both Donald and Lizzie assume things about the other that turn out to be wrong in more ways than one. They also don't resolve themselves in a neat, tidy way, but then, neither does life. They have a lot to learn, and so do we.

What starts out as a zany working-class comedy about an unusual anniversary present takes a few surprising turns, not all of them pleasant. Cathro press a difficult yet necessarily conversation, for this couple and for people in general, with a stark and brutal honesty. It challenges sacred notions of familial love while being a treatment to the complexities of romantic feeling. No easy answers, but it provides a powerful impact in several ways. Bravo!

Wow! The visuals and the well thought out dialogue will make this a very hard hitting and memorable part of an evening. This play is nothing you expected in slightly familiar clothing. It really leaves you thinking and wanting to reach out and hug the characters because they're so very real, as is their struggle. Well done.