←Recommendations of The Envelope

Neil Radtke is a master of suspense. THE ENVELOPE is crafted with such intelligence and fluidity that will keep you completely invested. Radtke expertly paces the play, as he grabs our attention from the very beginning and never lets us go. This is a compelling and dramatically rich play that deserves an audience.

A taut, suspense-filled 10 minutes where every bit of exposition is ammunition. Neil Radtke shines when nerves are on edge and emotions are raw. A great example of dropping the audience into the middle.

This is a tense and well-executed study of a marriage going through a real crisis, with crisp and dense dialogue and feelings spewing out in torrents. I have to admit I wanted a different ending...to know what was in the envelope. I'll bet you did, too. This is very good work.

The stakes are high and the suspense crescendos in this riveting narrative. So much pain and history are explored before the even more suspenseful conclusion. This is a splendid use of the ten-minute form.

Radtke knows how to build the suspense and release exposition at the right time. Is not forgiving a weakness or a strength? This family makes us ask that question. I'd love to see this perform. This is a perfect ten-minute for beginning actors in college.

This piece does keep you on the edge of your seat with very natural dialogue that flows from moment to moment. It's never easy to accomplish anything in a ten-minute play. This does the job for sure!

This was an excellent, tense 10-minute piece. The dialogue rings true, and you can just feel the hurt from these two people as they unfold their situation to the audience (we happy voyeurs, right?). The ending was the perfect way to bring this to a close. The best part of "short theater" sometimes is taking the audience through a whirlwind, and Radtke accomplishes that here as we hurt, we regret, and we ultimately hope for a certain resolution that may or may not occur. This would be perfect for any 10-minute festival that would have it!

So much history and conflict packed into just a few pages, yet it all felt super natural and easy to grasp. These indivuals felt so raw and their complex background left me wholly invested in what the next page would entail. The ending was perfectly ambiguous and the tension comes off the page - I loved it!

ARGH! Don't worry, its a good scream! They say that our past can come back to haunt us, well Neil has greated a doozy of a story based on just that premise. He keeps you guessing for the first several pages on what the past trasgression could be (I didn't read the synopsis). Then you, as the audience are on the edge of your seat watching the swift and tense back and forth between Roger and Rebecca before Neil leaves you with the perfect ending (no spoilers) and that is why the 'argh', I NEEDED TO KNOW MORE! Brilliantly done.