←Recommendations of Bereavement Leave

DANIEL PRILLAMAN has an amazing talent for writing fascinating works. In “Bereavement Leave”, you will be captivated from the beginning to the end with a fast-moving, witty, and thought provoking play. There are so many things to love about this play. Buckle your seatbelt, stay vigilant, lock your door - but it won’t help. This play is a ‘must-read’ and ‘must-see’.

This is a gem of a dark comedy—deftly skewering work, monotony, drudgery, and the banality of mortality, all encased in a recognizable white-collar workplace drama. Prillaman’s writing is snappy and the structure perfectly complements the themes. I imagine this would be a blast to design, act in, and watch!

I cannot recommend this play enough! Dark and timely, there is something wonderfully comforting that the soul-sucking bureaucracy of office politics exist even in the most horrifying of jobs. While the characters in this play are numbers and job titles, they sparkle off the page with personality and energy. It is deeply disturbing. It is brilliantly thought-provoking. It is unexpectedly, laugh-out-loudly FUNNY. This play desperately needs to be produced and brought to life.
And you thought YOUR job was bad.... at least you don't have to kill people with keystrokes. AMAZING.

This play bravely captures the angst, monotony, and subtle horror of the working week in a way that is both absurd and disturbingly real. With a strong repetitive structure and material about purpose, suicide, sexual assault, and even caffeine addiction, this play raises so many relevant existential questions, and I simply could not put it down.

The specificity of every word in this play, from the character descriptions, the dialogue they speak, their individual and aggregate situations, to the profoundly descriptive stage directions, creates a complete, tonal world with chilling efficiency. Our interest is piqued right from the beginning, and Prillaman takes us on a journey that at times is disturbing, but never less than fascinating, thought provoking, and ultimately moving.

I loved the claustrophobic theatrical world established from the outset. Prillaman slowly unveils the rules of the world through dialogue and character interaction without bogging us down in exposition. I also greatly enjoyed how distinct each character's personality was and how perfectly-rendered their interactions were throughout. To me, this play worked both as a "take-it-as-it-is" portrayal of loneliness, isolation, and relationships as a working adult, as well as a larger extended metaphor for the ways we both try to make and try to avoid making meaning out our day-to-day lives. I'd love to see this well-structured play staged!