←Recommendations of The Age of Understanding or, The Character of Dad

Elegantly moving and universal. What could be more relatable than the relationships Gonzalez explores here? The pains and fears of the child, parent, husband, wife are delved to a surprising depth, and then the playwright confidently lands us with a viscerally satisfying ending. Highly recommend.

Absolutely beautiful, painful, and completely unflinching short play about fatherhood. Gonzalez is a master playwright--if you haven't yet read his work, please do yourself a favor and read it.

What starts as a humorous exchange between father and his baby son, slowly turns into something quite deep and beautiful! You feel for this father as he recounts his resentment of his own dad. But the real beauty is the ending, when his partner walks back in the room, very clever, read it for yourself. Lovely!

This short play is lovely. It speaks to the difficulties of transitioning to parenthood, especially when your own parents left you with baggage. A beautiful reminder that we're all just trying to do the best we can.

I could have sworn I’d already recommended this piece. I saw it live almost a year ago at the Mid-America Theatre Conference, and it knocked my socks off with its raw honesty. I’ve since come to realize that “raw honesty” is what defines Franky Gonzalez as a writer. He never looks away, or backs down, or flinches. And this short play is no exception. It is a brave exploration of the terror and uncertainty that all new parents feel. It won’t feel more certain as a parent, but it might make you feel less alone.

A simple piece that gets right to the heart of its message in a way that cuts deep but also invites healing from past trauma. A must read for any father.

A powerful story of generations and of fatherhood as a man worries about getting it wrong. The love is unmistakeable as he earnestly hopes he'll be able to do the best job he can. Beautiful.

An absolutely stunning piece of writing. Gonzalez writes with his whole, entire heart and the pages sear with it. He is honest, he is loving, he is intelligent and self aware, and the play sings with it. This play is beautiful, tender, intuitive, natural, and honest in a way that most people aren't. This is a truly exceptional piece of writing that everyone should read.

This power play - which is more or less mostly a monologue - shows the insecurities of how a new dad feels as he babysits their baby. It's a very moving interacting between father and baby that arcs to a self-revelation. I highly recommend this play.

I performed in this play at Mid-America Theater Conference in 2020. At its core, this play is about a man trying to fit into his definition of what a father should be, which is complicated by his own relationship with his father. But this play is also about a marriage and a family and how having a child changes both of those things irrevocably.