←Recommendations of The Lover and the Fighter

Like all of Heyman's plays I've read thus far, the dialogue is snappy, and clever, and allows each character to be completely fleshed out. Heyman does a particularly grand job of crafting the friendship between Lee and Shawn which truly is the focal point of this play and guided by some very amusing supporting characters. There are a lot of great dramatic moments that are set up expertly by Heyman. While this play has some nice humor to it, the touching moments will truly stick with an audience.

I really enjoyed this very original story about two friends who take different paths in their lives. I find the play very engaging and I relate to the character of Lee. I love how the play gives a big back story to the characters, you get to learn more and more about Lee and Shawn’s relationship. This play shows how we all change over the course of time.

Sam Heyman has written a beautiful coming of age story about two teenage boys navigating their feelings, and what to do when someone is unable to love you in the way that you deserve to be loved. Watching these characters grow throughout this play and learn how to process their feelings of loneliness, identity, and unrequited love is a moving visceral journey that I cannot urge you enough to take.

The story of two very different people being devoted friends is not a new idea, but each time it is told, it sheds a new light on it. In this setting, Sam Heyman has developed a very complex and well-told tale of Lee and Shawn that holds our attention through the peaks and valleys of youth, adolescence, the dawning of maturity, and the consequences of saying the right and wrong thing. The bond between them is tested, and each must learn why they are so bound to each other. A thoughtful and poetic play, very much worth your time.

Lee and Shawn share their respective titles of the play more than one could imagine, locked in a battle between the world and their own relationship, one that isn't easily defined by platonic or romantic. Heyman delivers a breathtaking, well-paced journey through their histories as Lee attempts to deconstruct their past, to pull up his own anchor, and face Shawn for the first time in years. Brilliant work, tugs right at the heart of anyone (the reviewer included) who knows just what it feels like to navigate those greys.

Do we ever truly get over our youthful obsessions? A story of two friends navigating the life-altering changes of young adulthood, Heyman's fine play is ingeniously constructed to show the reality and dreamscape of Lee's obsession with Shawn. Can he/will he get over--or at least tame--his feelings before they consume him and permanently damage their relationship? Excellent work.

I think if we haven't been Lee or Shawn, we at least know them. It makes Heyman's layered memory play almost more relatable than we would like. It hits close to home because it makes us recall our own experiences, which lead us to wonder how we'd approach them differently in hindsight, and most importantly, how we recollect them in the first place. Soft and gentle, but filled with passion and heart, this is a story of love (in every way), and it is absolutely fantastic.