←Recommendations of you know, that Bakery out in Bensonhurst

I have read this play three times in the last four days, my favorite play I've read this year. I have been all of these characters at one time or another, and I am just removed enough to take it all in.

This play has an acute and refreshing sense of tone and rhythm! So much of this script, to me, captures the feeling of being on the precipice of "feminine adulthood"-- thinking you know everything, overplaying confidence, all the while being unsure in spite of necessary bravado. A wonderful piece of reality. #BAPF2022

Gina Femia brings us to that other Brooklyn where you’re 16 years old and you’re still working the counter at your family’s bakery without getting paid anything and talking with your sister about the mysterious deaths of rock stars and the mysterious lives of boyfriends while you’re serving customers. Until one day you just can’t anymore. Especially funny and especially heartbreaking. Produce this play!

I live a half a mile away from this bakery. In a metaphorical sense, of course, we all do, but I literally live in this neighborhood and I can attest - this play is REAL. It's also heartbreaking and funny and beautifully constructed, but most importantly of all, it's vividly and pungently real.

Raw, gorgeously written, and sneakily boundary-pushing, this gripping play somehow manages to be a breath of fresh air and an emotional punch in the gut at the same time, and I love it. I love its fearlessly organic structure, the subtle poetry it finds in everyday speech, how it creates high drama from small shifts in the relationships of its complex ensemble, its clear-eyed focus on how love doesn't keep us from failing those we cherish, and how those failures don't keep us from loving. A full-blooded, lived-in, skillfully understated marvel.

Wow! What a gorgeous piece with such nuanced and multi-dimensional characters. Like all of Gina Femia's work, this play renders a unique and eclectic assortment of characters with such fine brushstrokes while also articulating profound truths about loss, grief, love, friendship, depression, loneliness, connection, identity...the list could really go on! I devoured this easily in one compelling sitting. While completely eschewing contrived dramatics/fireworks, each conversation so clearly propels the action forward. It is easy to tell from reading that this would be an amazing night of theater to see live--I hope I have the privilege sometime soon!

This play broke my heart. Gina's beautiful play offers an examination of what a person will do to experience love, even when they are not quite sure what love is. It is poetic and moving and heartbreaking even while making me laugh.