←Recommendations of Things Are Looking Up

I have relatives in Canada and I have seen conversations like this in supermarkets. The script came across as being very true to life. Builds to a climax.

This play packs a wallop you will never see coming! Gatton has very distinctly created these characters; three co-workers discussing the ordinary things of everyday life in a convenience store. This simple scenario turns on a dime and leads us down the road to a tragedy that made me hold my breath. Gatton's skill lies in the fact that he tells you just enough, but not too much, and your mind goes where it needs to go in order to draw a conclusion. Written with great precision, humor, and pathos, this would be a terrific selection in any play festival!

There is nothing as terrifying as hearing a sound that signals a tragedy and not knowing if your loved ones are safe. Vince Gatton provides no easy answers, even when luck seems to be on their side. This is definitely the sort of play you want to experience in person to get the full visceral effect of what these nurses are experiencing. I love that this is set at a convenience store and not in a hospital. There are several unexpected moments, which goes from an ordinary discussion about knitting to major trauma in a mere minutes. Excellent!

Another intense play in Gatton's ...BONUS STARS universe, THINGS ARE LOOKING UP at first seems to be a simple slice of life piece, with a relaxed give and take between the characters, but when the AHA moment comes (especially if you've already read YOU HAVE EARNED BONUS STARS), everything changes instantly, the tension ratchets up considerably, and one is left horrified by what is about to be made very clear to one of the characters, and heartbroken for her future. Like other plays in this series, it stands on its own, but deepens if you know the full story.

An audience will want to strongly deny the dramatic irony that is central to Gatton's short play, hoping, hoping, hoping it isn't true but knowing, deep down, it is.

"Things Are Looking Up" also has a slight "Monkey's Paw" feel to it, as the wishes for home, for work come true in unexpected ways. Strong character, dialogue, and structure work by Gatton.

"Things Are Looking Up" is one of Gatton's anthology plays with ties to a tragic central event, whose effects ripple for years. Wonderful breadth of writing.

In the banality of small talk in the aisle of a convenience store, Vince Gatton brings us a portrait of three people that will stay with you. The dialogue and the characters who share their slices of their life is so genuine and powerful simply because it is so seemingly ordinary. The drama that he brings us is powerful. Well done.