←Recommendations of The Droll {Or, a Stage-Play about the END of Theatre}

The Droll is an incredibly strong play that does so much more than speak to our present moment and present needs. Miroshnik poses thoughtful questions as to the nature of theatre, and the nature of apocalypses, grounded in the story of those who survived the end of their world. It's an engaging and thoughtful narrative with the heart that truly great plays require.

I read a lot of plays, yet I keep coming back to THE DROLL. And every time I do, I'm nagged by a thought: "IS this my FAVORITE play?" Do I love it because it restores all my faith in what the theatre can do? Because it inspires me with its wily cleverness, fantasticke stylization, yet intense modernity? Because it imagines a slice of history long-forgotten and still makes it so stunningly urgent? One that heaves my hearte into my mouthe as the very form of art is on the line? All doubts begone. This is my FAVORITE. Read. It.

A play about the end of theatre feels particularly relevant, but do not be daunted! The Droll is fantastically entertaining and enjoyable and relatable beginning to end. It is large, historical, complex and Nim is a gentle soul who I was rooting for from the start, and I love Doll Cutpurse! It feels as if there are many more than 7 characters for Miroshnik creates an entire authoritarian society where, more than asking what evil would you do, The Droll shows us how people can be driven to do evil.

The Droll is an imaginative and beautiful piece of historical fiction, one that should be produced again and again at every Shakespeare theatre in the country -- once our own End of Theatre is over. Meg Miroshnik takes us on a journey through a Puritan England without live performance, asking audiences to grapple with what they might do if theatre was gone for fifteen years or more. And to think that this play was written in 2014. Is Meg a soothsayer?