Recommended by Andrew Martineau

While we have all heard stories of people leaving their lives behind, experiencing a form of death and returning, there is a profound sense of spirituality and calm to Byham’s testimonials, yet these stories are never stagnant. The ending of the play here, as it is for all these characters, is a beginning, and it is lovely. Wonderfully moving piece.

The whole concept of bringing a new girlfriend to a deceased wife’s gravesite is intriguingly eerie, but Christopher Soucy takes it to another level of unexpected dramatic tension that is both unsettling and very funny. I never knew where this was headed, but I was there for the wild ride. I can see this being a hit at a comedy festival of short plays.

Childhood trauma is a beast, and Vivian Lermond eloquently dramatizes the realization that it can be fought in her brief, powerful monologue. I love this metaphor: “My life has been a long, ill-fought battle … a slog
through a quagmire of disabled emotions.” Beautifully expressed. Let us all find the light!

The genius of this monologue is that the seemingly rambling inner monologue of an anxious mother perplexed by a society that needlessly puts children in harm’s way actually has a clear structure to it. Every word and image is precise and meaningful. I can relate to this mother’s anxiety as a parent of teenagers. We need more monologues like Syran’s and honest conversations about why we don’t have more roundabouts and safety measures in place when we send our kids out to school.

I don’t know how many time my attention has shifted from the inane dialogue of lead characters and I started imagining what the background characters were discussing in plays and movies. The idea that they have an interesting story of their own often arises just from our not knowing what the heck they are talking about, and suddenly they are important. I love this concept of how the author and director’s focus may not be what we really want to know. Fantastic play on many comedic levels!

I love a funny play about amateur characters acting in the most amateurish way possible, and Jack Levine doesn’t shy away from having his obnoxious lead actor ham it up in the spotlight, a place this actor has no business being at the moment. While it is clever and very funny, the play also gives us a valuable lesson on what good acting is about and being true to one’s character. This is a lot of fun!

I love plays that give us a sense of what theatre can do when the writer uses their imagination to convey a character’s psyche in interesting ways. The older we all get, the more we can relate to the young person we still feel we are on the inside, dying to break free from our deteriorating physical shell. I wanted to put this wonderful man on a donkey myself at the top of the Grand Canyon after eating an Everything bagel. Beautifully structured and oh so touching!

What is so masterful here is the way in which Marshall Logan Gibbs takes the serious issue of gambling addictions, particularly of the elderly, and shows us how heartbreaking it can be through dramatic action. Lucy loves her grandmother and dinosaurs. She is not yet old enough to understand the reasons for her grandmother’s neglect. I wonder about the mother who has allowed her daughter to spend time in public under her mother’s care. There is so much rich subtext in this brief play. Excellent!

The emotional weight that Timothy has carried for 27 years is brought to a blinding moment of confrontation in Donald Baker’s extraordinarily powerful short play of abuse. Baker layers issues of dominance and White privilege in this very heartbreaking piece that starts out tense and continues to tighten until you realize that there can be no positive outcome. This would be an amazing play for a carefully led post show discussion on an important issue that rarely gets the attention it needs. Great work!

I love this! A mind-numbingly insipid daytime TV show that uses makeovers as a way to hold on to viewers is skewered by Donna Latham, and yet the play seems as real as the thing it is lampooning. Our “weird sister” knows how to deal with the ridiculous put-downs about her appearance, it seems, and the mix of contemporary banter and Shakespearean style spell-making is incredible. I would love to see this onstage now!