←Recommendations of We Are Cranston

We are laughing! It felt a little wrong to be so entertained by the tragedy within these pages, but, these days, I'll take my chuckles wherever I can find them. A brutal and fantastic skewering of overly-competitive sports culture!

A darkly comedic riot. Having three students play off the Coach was so smart. They become something of a moral Greek chorus, and the final moment of the play lands the play beautifully. (No pun intended)

We Are Cranston is a darkly comedic critique of the toxic obsession with winning in high school sports. The coach’s blind ambition and the players' moral dilemmas create a hilarious yet heartbreaking contrast. Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend brilliantly highlights the absurdity of adult-driven competition.

03.02.25 - WOWWEE, That was SOOO inappropriately hilariously dark. I loved it. Even the demise of the opposing team is so bonkers, you can't help but laugh at the senseless, yet funny as hell tragedy of it all. The Coach, blinded by ambition, tries every Hail Mary trick in the book to convince his kids to crush the already suffering JV team. Adults... we're the worst. Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend has scored a game-winning touchdown with this one.

Lisa Dellafiarino Feriend pulls off the high wire act of a farce rooted in tragedy brilliantly. The coach's total lack of a moral compass becomes funnier and funnier until it becomes effective. The decency of the three young football players initially provides a striking counterpoint. The final resolution points up the absurdity of the win at any cost mentality. This is a play that deserves to be seen both for its skill and its message.

What a fantastic play! In this taut ten-minute dark comedy LIsa Dellagiarino Feriend brilliantly skewers the glorification of HS sports, in particular, football; our society's overemphasis on winning and raising kids to be highly competitive; and how overinvested (and manipulative) adults can be when it comes to kids' sports. The response of the teenage teammates to the situation they’ve been forced into is both laugh-out-loud funny and totally heartbreaking. SO good!!

Well, hello, darkness, my old friend! But this darkness is of the most extreme (and extremely hilarious) variety. Dellagiarino Feriend has mined a horrifying set-up for every damn laugh possible. Kudos!

This skewering of the "rah-rah pep talk in the locker room before the big game" trope is pure, dark comedy perfection.

Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend takes a truly tragic situation and mines it for all its comic potential. I envy anyone who gets to play the Coach. You won’t believe you’re actually laughing at what happened to the Cranston high school varsity, but trust me, you will.

Always hated that Vince Lombardi mantra - "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing" - and WE ARE CRANSTON goes after winning at all costs with Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend's devastatingly satirical wit. Maybe we all need to practice losing and as a society understand the value of not winning - otherwise, as this fine play suggests, it will all just go to hell. I love the comedic touches, the embellishments of the theme, that had me groaning while laughing on the inside. Never has the Big Game seemed like such a terrible crock thanks to this fine work.