Wake is a tender and poignant exploration of grief, friendship, and the passage of time. Through the lens of Anna and Eloise's evolving relationship, the play delves into the complexity of loss—from childhood to adulthood—and the ways families intertwine through love and tragedy. A moving and thought-provoking piece.

As someone who finds herself unable to look at life without both melancholy and joy, this play feels rooted in something familiar yet not often given the space onstage. This is a bittersweet meditation on loss, from the seemingly small loss as distance grows in childhood friendships to true tragedy that you often don’t have words for until years later. I’m left in a contemplative space after reading this piece and would love to experience it together with an audience.

This is such a lovely, human, somewhat melancholic play about friendship, mortality, grief, and how our perceptions of/relationships to these things change and evolve over time. The theatricality of how Kuo plays with time and space is beautifully realized and integral to the storytelling. I loved how, even though some moments wound back and forth in the timeline, there was always a sense of forward momentum in this relationship between Eloise and Anna and a greater understanding achieved between characters and by audience/readers. I'd love to see this realized onstage!