←Recommendations of Circle Forward

This play is wonderful. A skeptical woman meets up with a teenager claiming to be the reincarnation of her deceased husband, and you spend the entire play trying to deduce who's earnest and who's deceptive, continually reeling and reevaluating as new information gets sprinkled in and what you thought was true turns out to be not quite. I loved every minute. With complex characters, stellar dialogue, one set, and a small cast, this play would be easy to stage and should be staged often.

This marvelous page-turner of a Deb Hiett play is based upon real cases of this reincarnation occurrences. It's a multi-layered love story mixed in with a ghost story thriller. A high point play in any theatre's season.

As with all Deb Hiett's plays, "Circle Forward" offers great laughs and beautiful poignancy, delivering on the promise of the reincarnation premise while also taking us into surprising and unexpected explorations of parenting, abusive relationships, and forgiveness. A spooky mystery as well as a comedy and drama, "Circle Forward" was exactly the kind of play I was hoping it would be, and so very much more.

The intriguing, spooky premise of a child who remembers his past life gives way to a play about two women who realize they may be more similar than they initially thought. CIRCLE FORWARD explores abuse and its half-life (if it has one), unspeakable secrets (it's a big one!), and the expectations children place on their mothers (and what happens when they’re shattered). I enjoyed the twists and turns throughout and I think all the roles (Ethan especially) would be exciting for actors.

Deb Hiett gives us all the goods with Circle Forward. It's filled with humor, mystery, intrigue, twists, complex characters and gut-wrenching authenticity. In a Deb Hiett play, chicken salad is never just chicken salad. I desperately want to see a full production of this play. And the roles, oh the amazing roles for actors. The entire premise itself is unendingly fascinating. She has struck gold with this one. It's a tour de force.

It's not very often you find a play that's smart, funny, touching and absolutely terrifying at the same time. At the center of Deb Hiett's CIRCLE FORWARD is a very modern, oh-so-together woman who finds herself taking a new look at her path and her past... through a most unexpected lens. I was lucky to watch a reading of this play, and Deb's sharp dialogue is such a treat. Her characters are surprising and revealed in terrific ways - we follow all the right kind of left turns into and out of the most gripping places, here!

A powerful look through memory to confront the past in order to work through it. Moving and well done.