The Weight of Air

by Dana Hall

In the quiet of a campus blackout, two new roommates, a science major who studies light and a girl who fears the dark, discover the strange gravity that holds us together.

In the quiet of a campus blackout, two new roommates, a science major who studies light and a girl who fears the dark, discover the strange gravity that holds us together.

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The Weight of Air

Recommended by

  • Debra A. Cole: The Weight of Air by Dana Hall
    “

    SUCH A LOVELY SHORT PLAY! DANA HALL is a true master with dialogue that educates an audience and makes them feel something deep and so very human. THANK YOU for a play that centers around two young females that doesn't revolve around a love interest. Their connection is so much deeper without that distraction.

    SUCH A LOVELY SHORT PLAY! DANA HALL is a true master with dialogue that educates an audience and makes them feel something deep and so very human. THANK YOU for a play that centers around two young females that doesn't revolve around a love interest. Their connection is so much deeper without that distraction.

    ”
  • Nora Louise Syran: The Weight of Air by Dana Hall
    “

    Stunning. I fell in love with these two female characters and the simple poetry present in the staging and dialogue. Thank you, Dana Hall, "for telling [us] something that matters."

    Stunning. I fell in love with these two female characters and the simple poetry present in the staging and dialogue. Thank you, Dana Hall, "for telling [us] something that matters."

    ”
  • Donald Loftus: The Weight of Air by Dana Hall
    “

    "The Weight of Air" is a beautifully written and deeply compassionate play that explores grief, autism, anxiety, and human connection with remarkable sensitivity and authenticity. Poetic without ever feeling sentimental, the play reminds us that sometimes surviving the darkness is simply finding someone willing to sit beside us in it.

    "The Weight of Air" is a beautifully written and deeply compassionate play that explores grief, autism, anxiety, and human connection with remarkable sensitivity and authenticity. Poetic without ever feeling sentimental, the play reminds us that sometimes surviving the darkness is simply finding someone willing to sit beside us in it.

    ”
View all 5 recommendations
LILA: Nineteen to twenty-two.
A physics or astronomy major. She speaks carefully, like she’s used to measuring her words.
There’s steadiness in her curiosity, a calm that comes from naming things she can’t control. When she talks about light and distance, it isn’t just science; its faith disguised as fact.
CASSIDY: Eighteen to twenty-one.
Undeclared, maybe art, maybe education, she hasn’t decided yet, about much of anything. She moves through the world like every sound is a little too loud. Her humor slips out sideways, unplanned. Beneath the bluntness is something fragile and exact, the kind of honesty that doesn’t know it’s beautiful.

Awards

  • Top 10 Short Play
    Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival
    Finalist
    2026