←Recommendations of Better (Full-length)

[11/17/24] I devoured this play. Vince Gatton has illustrated a beautiful snapshot of what life in one white working-class community looks like in late-stage capitalism taken to a further, gorier, but believable future step with a bone-chilling horror story with exquisitely-drawn, often very funny characters. The ending was one of the most unsettling parts to me, due to its inevitability. This play must be seen on stage soon! Great roles for women of a certain age!

I love this play. From the character descriptions, to the fantastically real dialogue, to the slowly-revealing plot. Gatton’s play is smart, dark and disturbing, and relatable. It will sit with you for a while. And that ending…

I want to see this in all its bloody glory. I want this to get a film one day, and I want to watch that, too. I want to be there when the audiences gasp. I want to listen to the whispers as they leave the theatre. I want to watch actors delve into these words and abso-fuckin-lutely terrify us in their lived-in sincerity. One day I will direct a production of this - I'm speaking that into existence. Long live horror in theatre. Read this. Produce it. Damn.

Vince sets up a world and people you instantly enjoy spending time with. And then as the story develops, you start to realize that this play is saying even more than what was first thought. The play is exciting, the kind of play, as an actor, that you desperately want to do, and as a playwright, inspires you to keep writing!

We should all write a play as good as Vince Gatton's BETTER. That's all I have to say, except maybe I wish I'd written it.

I fucking love this play. It's that simple.

Get ready to be fully immersed in a meat-processing plant with a lot more to it than first meets the eye. The evolution of the characters is wholly unexpected and yet inevitable. This is only my second reading of Vince Gatton's work and certainly not my last. He is an American playwright who exhibits "...a fierce moral sensibility which is unquenchable...he is... burning with some anger at the way the world is"-A Miller. Bravo!

There’s so much more going on in this play than what’s on the surface—and the surface is pretty great! Using a deceptively simple setup and some incredibly real-feeling characters, Gatton has a lot to say about systems of oppression and our individual role in them. Even the characters who try to buck the system do it for mostly selfish reasons—no one is without blood on their hands (both literally and figuratively). With some stellar monologues and shocking bits of stagecraft, this play will give audiences a lot to think about on the way home!

A captivating look at the system in place in a meat packing plant and the resistance to anything that may change the current order. Well done.