←Recommendations of Hibernation

Sickles serves up a witty, banter-filled feast of a ten minute play in HIBERNATION. Small-town melancholy, acerbic jabs and a deeply human core coalesce and create a short that will stay with you long after the curtain falls. I loved seeing this play read at the 2025 Midwest Dramatists Conference and I feel confident it will find more audiences soon.

Max in hibernation after a painful divorce is starting to emerge with the help of 2 old friends who each have a crush on him. Scott Sickles does an excellent job of portraying the awakening from numbness of Max while Gunnar and Ingrid provide plenty of witty banter of bickering with each other and flirting with Max. A very enjoyable little play.

What happens when you turn Ingmar Bergman into a rom-com? You get Scott Sickles' marvelous HIBERNATION, a wistful tale of small-town friends helping each other find and re-find love through the dishiest banter imaginable. (Seriously, when it comes to dishy banter with heart Sickles is a national treasure.) Beautifully done.

I saw a reading of this very funny and sexy play at the Midwest Dramatists Conference. Sickles does a lovely job creating tension between the characters and creating choices for a future unknown.

I (like Woody Allen) have been devoted to Ingmar Bergman's work for years. And I must give immeasurable kudo's to the estimable Scott Sickles for pulling off this adaptation so effortlessly. "Hibernation" is as real as the characters that inhabit it. Gently comic. Touching. Nicely done!

In this lovely little play, Scott Sickles gives us three mature people within whom love may be hibernating but there is still a hope of its reawakening. They are totally relatable as they engage in the sort of relaxed banter longtime friends comfortably toss back and forth. It is a most satisfying, heartwarming piece. Highly recommended.

[2025-10-17]
"Hibernation" is a warm and funny piece that is just the balm for our ailing faith in humanity. (I say "our" because it can't just be me. Right? Right?) The dialogue crackles like a fireplace and the emotions Scott brings to the surface — depression, longing, amity, hankering for sweets — are natural, never forced, and make us love all three characters. A delightful piece that warms the heart like a nice mug of tea. Bravo!

Scott is a master of true to life, honestly raw, naturalistic wordplay -- all of which is on display in this wickedly funny, sweetheart of a short play.lines like “I’ve always imagined Satan to be a
surprisingly tender lover." Are realistic and funny. I was privileged to attend a reading of this at the Midwest Dramatists Conference (Oct 25) and was blown away again by Scott's mastery of the form.

Pastors and pastries, oh my! Scott Sickles is simply masterful in his dialogue: laugh out loud funny, make you blush flirty, excellent set-up and payoff, and proof of the old adage that specificity is key to relatability. Phenomenal work!

Scott Sickles has crafted a shiny holiday ornament dripping in "runny glaze" warmth and softness (yet "surprisingly firm...") and packed with a jalapeño punch. Delightful! Loved the pastor's first-Sunday-after-the-holiday-depression.