←Recommendations of The Known Universe (Part Three of The Second World Trilogy)

This play will crush you, leave your heart torn and stay with you, nagging at your mind, for a very long time. This is the highest praise. An unthinkable, unbearable situation… Literally watching your loved ones perish when there’s absolutely no hope and nothing you can do, but Sickles will play your heart strings like a violin from beginning to end. The family love shines brightly in the tragedy, making it all the more tragic, sad, and oh so beautiful. Absolutely stunning work.

A loving non-traditional family faces the literal end of the world. It's a profile in courage and empathy and the making of hard, healthy choices, which is resonant all on its own while providing a satisfying finish to Sickles's ambitious trilogy. In part 3, the playwright reveals hidden moments from parts 1 and 2, quickly and entertainingly catching up the audiences who didn't see them, while delighting those who did.

I was so incredibly fortunate to be able to catch a virtual reading of The Known Universe by Roly Poly Productions in the Mixed Asian Media Fest. I don't know want to give spoilers for this final chapter of The Second World Trilogy, so just read it. This piece will stick with you and have you thinking long after you get to "End of Play." Scott Sickles has taken us on Teddy and Anzor's journey from pen-pals to parents and the only way I can describe the conclusion is a satisfying gut punch. Go. Read it. Watch it. Experience it.

This play is heartbreakingly beautiful, made more so by the epic nature of the tender love story at the center of this brilliant trilogy (seriously, if you haven't read MARIANAS TRENCH or PANGEA, read them first so you will feel the full weight of Andy and Teddy's parting). The way these characters all approach their final moments with clarity and courage will stay with you long after the play's conclusion. Caviar-level catharsis as only Scott Sickles can provide.

Is “unbearable” a word one can use to praise a play? It’s the word I keep coming back to regarding The Known Universe, the gorgeous and excruciating conclusion to Sickles’ Second World Trilogy. It begins with these beloved characters receiving truly unbearable news, then proceeds to show how they bear it. Sickles being Sickles, though, it’s anything but a slog: funny, sexy, overflowing with love, and with a central dramatic question that stays alive right to its final moment, The Known Universe is packed with both unbearable sorrow and hard-earned wisdom. And tears. Many tears. Bring tissues.

This play is what despair feels like. Using characters and situations we've come to care about and hope for throughout the excellent Second World Trilogy, Sickles stares hard at inevitability and the end times we've written for ourselves, and makes us look at it, too. The apocalypse here truly feels like Ragnarok in scale, terrifying in its inescapability, and yet, as Sickles guides us into the darkness, there's a chill sense of comfort. As the temperature drops, one feels a sensation of warmth. That's what this play, and really the whole trilogy, is like.

(please note the following is a joke and you ABSOLUTELY SHOULD read this play)

Do not read this play if you cherish the love of Anzor and Teddy. Do not read this play if you don't want to find yourself contemplating the meaning of existence and the inevitable end of the, well, known universe. Do not read this play if you don't want to come away feeling a hole within your being. This is some of Scott's best and most heartbreaking work, and an intense and thoughtful end to his trilogy. You won't be the same post read.

The Known Universe is the final part of Scott Sickles' brilliant Second World Trilogy, and if you've read the first two parts, you'll love the way Sickles concludes Teddy and Anzor's story. It's a sad ending, as this extraordinary family has to confront an apocalyptic situation in a world once threatened by global warning, and which is now on the brink of another Ice Age. But the strength of Teddy and Anzor's love for one another and their family is center stage in this drama, and reminds us that even in the most desperate of situations, love conquers all.

Holy cow. I tried to space out my reading of this trilogy to make it last as long as possible. Each play is wonderful and more than stands on its own, but reading them together (or slightly spaced out to make them last longer) makes them hit so much harder -especially this final play, which is beautiful and sad. Moments from the first two plays are woven into the final chapter and resonate in a different, more heartbreaking way. Or maybe I'm just heartbroken because the trilogy is over? (Nah, this play is SAD. Read it and let's cry together.)

Scott Sickles has built a future world that is both vast and intimate. In this final chapter, the emphasis is on the intimate as he brings us the final days of Anzor and Teddy and their wonderful, if doomed, family. In "Marianas Trench," Scott showed us two boys who manage to survive despite their families. Here, they have created a family that is worth fighting, and dying for. "The Known Universe" is a fitting and heartbreaking (maybe fitting BECAUSE it's heartbreaking) conclusion to the masterful trilogy.