←Recommendations of My Brother Jake

In every Dave Osmundsen play I read or see, there’s always one line that pierces me to my core, and then stays with me forever. In MY BROTHER JAKE, it’s “I deserve a chance to fail”. MBJ is an earnest, unsparing call for us to fly close to the sun, and expand our idea of what a ‘good life’ looks like.

Osmundsen’s taut two-hander explores the problematic dichotomy of “high-needs” versus “functional” autistics and most interestingly, the fissure that distinction creates WITHIN the ND community.

This is, by far, the most nuanced depiction of autism I have ever read. Being an autistic artist myself, there is so much meat in this text to digest. From internalized ableism to brotherly dynamics, this play will truly shatter the glass ceiling for us autistic people. The play prioritizes the perspective of a medium-high support needs autistic, which gives the audience the opportunity to reflect on their own pre-conceived notions of what autism is. Beautiful work here!

A remarkable piece that peels back the nitty-gritty of what it means to be a disabled artist, the weight of representing a multi-faceted community, and the limits of what polite society is willing to stomach before writing them off.

The brothers are two sides of the same coin but where Ethan's reflection in Jake's shine gives him hope of what could be, the inverse strikes fear into Jake's heart to a degree he's not prepared to reconcile with.

Gorgeous.

I had the pleasure and honor of performing the role of Jake in a reading of this play, and my God. What a meaty, fascinating, challenging, complex role, and he's only half of the equation. A nuanced, complex, and compassionate portrayal of autism that asks necessary questions of who gets included and who does not in conversations of inclusion in the arts.