←Recommendations of A train wreck with monsters

This is a play you can’t look away from, even if you wanted to--which you will not. Take Me Away speaks to all of us as it examines how we rationalize our most (in hindsight) questionable, even dangerous decisions. If the most successful plays invite us to ask ourselves what we would do, this play asks that in capital letters. You’ll be thinking and talking about Take Me Away well after its end.

A phenomenal piece of story-telling that carries us down into the depths of human experience, seduced just as surely as "She" is along the way, and equally helpless to break free...but when She finally does, and the audience with her, it is revelatory. Brilliantly theatrical, emotionally wrenching, this is playwriting at the highest level.

I saw this piece at the Valdez Theatre Conference, and it was as emotionally affecting as anything I saw all week. It unfolds like a series of gut punches, as the entirely relatable protagonist finds herself sucked deeper and deeper into the delusions of her malignant narcissist lover/captor. You could hear a pin drop for the entirety of this gripping piece - and this was only a reading. Seeing it fully staged, complemented by the (sub)titular monsters, would truly elevate the experience.

I saw a reading of this play at the 2025 Valdez Theater Conference, and it wrecked me in all the best ways possible. Deeply intense, creative, and highly theatrical, the play's subtitle ("train wreck") is incredibly apt as the entire play is an intense, dangerous, painful ride that covers so much ground. LOVED this work and all the ways it ripped me open.

A stark reminder that the most insidious forms of toxicity approach with a smile, charm, and promises of escape. The play takes its time depicting a slow build as one character gaslights and manipulates another until the effect is almost unbearable. We go along on the journey with real and imagined monsters as She finds herself again. Yet Kraay never plays the expected notes. Surprises grab us at every turn until an astonishing close that still has me reeling from the implications. Stunning.

Intense does not even begin to describe what it is like to experience this play. Heidi Kraay has created a theatrical journal of one woman’s story of survival and the horrors endured by those caught in the sway of the broken yet charismatic men. An ultimately uplifting, if bracing, work, Take Me Away encourages us to find the inner monster, who may yet prove less monster than protector. An unforgettable, richly sculpted play. A designers’ dream and an actor’s mountain to climb.

I saw a reading of this at the Valdez Theatre Conference and I can't say enough about it. The first word that came to mind was harrowing and the second was beautiful. It did such an incredible job capturing emotional abuse and there are lines that haven't left my mind since. I can only imagine how stunning is would be to watch a staged version but even a reading brought me tears and hope.

A fluid, almost hypnotically written play that haunts as much as it mesmerizes. An emotionally packed story with two rich characters, Kraay's vision for theater remains vivid and captivating.