←Recommendations of ERSTWHILE [A MONOLOGUE]

A beautifully crafted interior monologue, a stream-of-consciousness confessional, a delicate portrait rendered with subtlety and pain. Steven G. Martin's "Erstwhile [a monologue]" settled into my mind like a lovely midwestern musical interlude as I read it. Nicely done!

Steve Marin has carefully crafted a monologue wherein every day events flow by, yet something both large and subtle is taking place. This is Garret's last day volunteering. The details of both his present and his past inform his decision. We don't need to know those details to be fully engaged in this piece that is somehow both cheerful and melancholy.

Garret’s intentions are so good and admirable. But there’s still an air of sadness about him. I love how friendly he is with everyone he interacts with, but I still feel he keeps everyone at a distance. There’s a chasm that feels deceptively wide, hidden behind his easy banter with fellow volunteers. I hope he is retiring early to do something good for himself. What he deserves is a warm hug!

This is gorgeous. There is so much packed into this: kindness, tenderness, melancholy... Being a Midwest boy, I feel like I know Garrett and every unseen person he interacts with. It's like watching a play about my uncle, or someone I knew in school. Such a rich ribbon of realness runs through this short play that it's like reading a transcript of an emotionally eloquent documentary. This hit me hard, but I'm the better for it.

Everything is deliberate in this quietly extraordinary, ordinary moment of Garrett's last day volunteering. The silent, mundane business, the pacing, the pauses, the information conveyed and withheld, accumulate to profound emotional effect -- Steven Martin owes me compensation for the painful lump in my throat this play gave me. Moral self-reckoning has rarely been so moving.