←Recommendations of Phones

PHONES is a clever exercise in setting the stage for the cautionary tale that you know will follow - if we were to know the story to its inevitable end. Darrin Friedman does a great job in setting the table for a fateful decision by our down-on-his-luck protagonist utilizing a simple, everyday device we all carry. What if? Some of my favorite stories start with this question. As does this marvelously engrossing short fantasy. Well done!

Poor Barry has been done wrong by the world, but does this strangely omnipotent stranger have the answer to his problems or is she offering a bigger problem? Barry's conundrum is wittily explored in this well-crafted two-hander. Both characters are clearly drawn and engaging and the pay-off left me shaking my head at poor Barry's fate.

A stranger on a bench who knows too much and has a phone that can do amazing things. Who could resist the opportunity to make things right in their life and settle old scores? Darrin Friedman presents this scenario and question in brilliant comic fashion. Revenge can be sweet. Of course, as they say, the devil is in the details. I would absolutely love to see this one on stage!

The thing I love about Darrin Friedman's work is that there is never an easy answer, and it's almost like as the playwright, he takes a smirking delight with the reader posing sort of a question: "How do YOU think it ends?"—I've been waiting to see him do this with a comic piece, and in PHONES, his first short and his first comedy, he delivers! Shades of the surprisingly poignant Adam Sandler movie CLICK, Friedman offers us a chance to live vicariously through an everyman who gets the chance to take revenge on those who have wronged him.

A sharply comic 21st century variation on what seems to be a Faustian pact. This works as a standalone piece, but would be even more gripping if developed into a full length play or screenplay. Easy-to-stage with strong roles in the woman offering an added-value mobile phone and the disillusioned man ambushed by her. Definitely not a ‘phoned in’ play, this contemporary piece chimes across the generations and has potential if developed into a longer piece for stage or screen.

Is a phone that’s promised to turn your life around too good to be true? For Brian, it’s worth it for all that he’s been wronged for. This play is so much fun from the very beginning and will have audiences captivated through brilliant humor, dynamic characters, and a question of the limits we are willing to go for sweet revenge.

If a stranger who knew everything about you offered you a chance to not just change your life but get some long-sought revenge, would you take it? Or is it some kind of bargain with...? Darrin Friedman has crafted a tidy and fully-developed pairing with a very compelling premise. What would you do? Well, the first thing you should do is read this play and then share it or produce it.