←Recommendations of A MONOLOGUE

A powerful and richly human monologue about the immigrant experience in America as one chases the dream. Well done.

In a few pages, in a matter of minutes, Asher creates an unforgettable character, Barsha Badal, and we experience her entire world, the world she escaped from, the numbing world she inhabits and the world beyond her motel's front door that she yearns to explore. Barsha is both ridiculously funny and desperately sad and unforgettable. In his monologue plays, Asher Wyndham has created a cavalcade of Americans who at first glance we ignore or scoff at, but who he forces us to examine and discover their depth and their humanity and most of all, their need to be heard.

Barsha is fully fearless even though she has plenty of reasons to be afraid. Yet again, Wyndham has written a monologue for a person who doesn't get written for often--an Indian woman. Barsha is brassy and loud and larger-than-life and you don't know whether you should envy her husband or feel bad for him, but she is determined and admirable. Your heart breaks for her, but you certainly don't feel bad for her. Wyndham is a master at writing monologues that are meant to be SPOKEN, not just read. His stream-of-consciousness style is incredibly fun. Another hit, well done.

This play's structure, pacing and voice dynamics create a compelling, prismatic world - where a change agent takes on myth and momentum with dignity and grace. Wyndham's language builds momentum throughout in its honest conflict - this woman feels familiar and her story all too relevant. Do we live in America - the "Dream" - or the nightmare? With human connection and a kind of writerly ease, Wyndham asks the hardest questions. Any actor would find so much to work with here! It's big, lush and cuts to the bone.

Barsha Badal is an Indian immigrant coming to terms with the reality of the American Dream and an unhappy life/marriage. It's heartbreaking with moments of wickedness and humor. It's familiar and unsettling and completely on target. A terrific monologue.

Barsha is immediately a likeable character. And even though she is intentionally drawn as “the Other”, the reader/audience quickly connects to her. I particularly like the writer’s chosen form for the monologue - the character doesn’t exactly talk to the audience or to herself but to other, unseen characters just out of sight. Both charming and sad, a nice monologue, especially for non-white female actors.

This play is so fun and feisty! Asher's use of Americana references helps to create an absurb world that I wanna be in for a while!