←Recommendations of Two Boys on the Beach

A genuinely captivating story of adolescent growing pains. From exuberant play fighting to cautious adult behavior, Matthew Weaver has given us a tender, relatable play bound to stir memories among audiences.

What a tender portrait of youthful friendship and its betrayal. Jack means Lucky no harm and yet the harm is done. Harm Lucky can't acknowledge. The predatory sitter is a disturbing, but entirely credible, presence. A lot of complex emotions are explored in this play's short run time.

I am not sure I ever read a play I enjoyed more than this one. Sheer talent. Matthew Weaver is a playwright to watch!

Two boys on the cusp of adulthood, playing as boys do "on the edge," not quite ready to dive in, unaware of what the future holds. Sweet, charming, sensual and loaded with budding teenage angst.

The play fighting in this reminds me of some of my favorite moments of play from childhood and in TYA shows I've read and directed. Then, just as what happens with life, things change. Adulthood sneaks in. Sexuality and desire. There's fun and lightness in these pages, but there's also something sinister. I'll be thinking on the ease to which the sitter moves on from her actions for a while. In a way, it's terrifying. How frightening this world we grow into is, a strange feeling Weaver captures expertly.

An excellent capture of two boys coming of age as they experience urges during their sword play on the beach. Well done!

This is one of those plays that you wonder how in the world did Matthew Weaver know exactly what my life was like when I was twelve and on the cusp of knowing what all those feelings and urges meant? And what it was like to be so close and yet so far away from the truth? And how it felt to realize that what was so important ten seconds ago now means something else entirely? Oh, so many truths in such a short, sweet, and meaningful play.

In reading and reviewing THREE BOYS ON THE BEACH, the LGBT version, my perception of this story as a gay reader was slightly but significantly different. Namely, that was a wish fulfillment story I could relate to more than I could this.

But no matter one's perspective, the characters' wishes remain the same: one succumbs to a questionable impulse, another is introduced to mutual attraction a little early, and the third gets to watch from the sidelines. There's a deep ache to the ironically named Lucky. Everything has changed. That small but significant loss resonates hard.

Oh, those last moments of innocence and that inevitable moment when one friend matures faster than the other...

Weaver captures all the charm, wonder, bravado, and heartache of that moment when everything irrevocably changes in this beautiful little masterpiece, at once as joyful and sad as it is in life.

A perfect, economical glimpse of budding adolescence seasoned with the sad waning days of childhood, "Stand By Me" meets "Summer of 42." The minimalism is expert. Not a wasted word, and the words are age-specific and smart. The use of pre-swim/post-meal impatience, food allergies, the telling details are all, well, telling. Three small canvas portraits, ideally drawn. A little gem, both sweet and provocative.