←Recommendations of Clasp

This small play is a beautiful snapshot of all of the longing and uncertainty that has come out of these times. Joe and Rob's quest is something that many of us can relate too all too well after being cooped up in isolation for so long and I love how both characters are full and rich, navigating this current world.

This short piece speaks to our times in a way that I found unexpectedly poignant. Malone's play manages to capture the essence of what so many of us have lost this past year and what so many are still longing for in a way that is so touching it took my breath away, and the writer manages this while still maintaining a running thread of wit. This is one to produce now but also one that will hold up in the future as a means of looking back on this strange time.

I love the skillful "showing vs. telling" in this piece which gives us all we need to know about these characters and the seemingly-farther-down-the-rabbit-hole pandemic world depicted. It's a perfectly structured 10 minute play with an affecting button. With the characters played as male, there are also sharply drawn parallels to the loneliness, anxiety, and longing for connection in gay male hook-up culture. I'd be interested in seeing the different layers/nuances that emerge with actors of various gender identities in these roles.

There is a simplicity in this play that speaks volumes. It echos the fear and need I felt when reading parts of Angels in America, the frankness and desire for contact I found in Gruesome Playground Injuries, and manages to pull all of this off in a short amount of time and a unique voice. We are in a time in history where this is important. This play captures that time and will serve as a powerful time capsule when this is all over. Read it now. Produce it then. When we can touch again.

I think I teared up a little at this play. This is so real, and yet funny at the same time. The little things that are taken away from you in times like these become so very important. So is this play! Well done!

Wonderfully written and emotionally wrought. I feared for these men on so many levels, and at the end, I wished good fortune for both of them. I cared about them.

It's the level of detail in Toby Malone's 10-minute drama "Clasp" that showcases Joe's and Rob's characters and their desperate needs. The setting -- location as well as time -- and dialogue, costume, and action lead an audience to understand just difficult and scary it is for these men to get what they need.