←Recommendations of All is Calm

Will they or won’t they? This tender story of words unspoken and opportunities missed will have you shaking whatever device you are reading with and screaming “wake up, you two!” I feel better now. And you will too once you read ALL IS CALM.

A marvelously bittersweet two-hander, about Yuletide loneliness and and a love connection that clearly can never happen and so clearly needs to. What makes it so wonderful is that, despite its melancholy core, it teems with vibrant life; Doug and Garrett's unspoken feelings become a breathtaking fugue once they're spoken, and their unseen circle of friends is a glorious snapshot of a certain section of today's Manhattan. (I want a Boris and Borys sequel for Christmas!) A gem.

This upbeat holiday interaction takes a surrealist turn halfway through to show the audience what’s going on inside the characters’ minds. It’s a sweet, heartfelt moment between two friends who could be more. Lovely.

All is Calm offers a painful exploration of the cost of truths left unspoken between two friends. Lest that make the play sound grim and dreary, it is anything but. There are delicious flashes of wit leading up to the nearly frenzied non-declarations. I found myself deeply invested in and heart-broken by their ultimate failure to connect.

I came across this gorgeous and heartfelt two-hander a few days before Christmas and couldn't be more pleased. Sickles' clear voice comes through in this piece with sublime dialogue and a high quality gut punch toward the end. Thank you for gifting us with this terrific new play!

Scott Sickles is an absolute master of the wistfully semi-romantic two-hander. Whether his characters are starting something, stopping something, or missing the something that's staring them in the face, no one handles the lived-in realities of love and longing with the unique mix of wit, insight, nuance, and care that Sickles provides. Here, two long-time best just-friends have a brief non-encounter...that may be more...or may be not. But maybe...could? A lovely theatrical coup gives this sweet small moment a big swell of feeling, and all of us a wonderful holiday gift.

Wow. All the feels. All is Calm by Scott Sickles is the tender and tragic "stop by cute" we all need this holiday season. The back and forth dialogue in this two-hander is truly raw and beautiful. You've done it again, Scott. BRAVO!

ALL IS CALM starts as a gentle meet up of two close friends which gradually turns into a dance, a dance of will they/won't they - should they/shouldn't they. Once again, this playwright is a master of close, realistic believable dialogue, any audience will buy into these friends and probably like me will wish they'd see the obvious and get together!

"All is Calm" is a sweet and tender two-hander that captures both the magic and loneliness of the holiday season. In Doug and Garrett we see two characters who know one another so intimately that we ache right along with them. Reader beware: This play will entice you to make yourself a cup of "real" hot cocoa when you finish.

Sickles again presents dialogue and relationship that are real, wonderful, yearning and heartbreaking. ALL IS CALM is a perfect example of how beautifully he captures ache and to my utter dismay as a reader, restraint. This dismay illustrates how easily invested I become in his characters and their gorgeous inner monologues. <Look at Sickles' BULLETPROOF LOVE for more of this sublime sublimation and concealment> His characters' fear or simple inability to express their oceans' worth of feelings is a thing of beauty. I rooted for Garrett and Doug's discovery. Sometimes a gift of cocoa is more than just cocoa.