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David Hansen

Recommended by David Hansen

  • The Big Fuckin' Giant by Rachel Bykowski
    10 Apr. 2018
    “ Bykowski creates a trio of men who are each sympathetic in their own way, and in turn each of their weaknesses are exposed by the others. Women are absent, a couple defined for us by these men, as types -- an African-American who is fetishized and feared, the aloof, white cuckolder. These collegiate athletes channel their aggression and practice their dominance on the women they cannot understand and lives they feel they cannot control on a blow-up doll, and on each other. It is an aggressively physical and painfully eloquent parable for our time, or for all times. ”
  • Goat Song by Charlotte Rahn-Lee
    9 Apr. 2018
    “ On one Galápagos island, Rahn-Lee creates her own Petri dish of compelling characters to stir up a fascinating and even humorous philosophical debate on who lives and who dies, who gets to stay and who is forced to leave, and who has the right to decide. It is a cunning metaphor for today's immigration debate with a chilling conclusion. Highly recommended. ”
  • FUCK CANCER by Tanuja Devi Jagernauth
    7 Apr. 2018
    “ Much cancer treatment, in the West and elsewhere, are merely treatment. The palliate. To soothe. To provide energy, and strength, and hope. Because cancer will win.

    Jagernauth’s play, however, is not so much about the patient, but the provider, whose struggles are a reminder that you cannot take care of the patient if you do not take care of yourself.

    She has created a dreamlike, grounded, and heartbreaking piece about the helplessness we feel in the face of the most insidious and prevalent of maladies. Strongly recommended. ”
  • FALSTAFF RISETH by Rachael Carnes
    6 Apr. 2018
    “ This tale is one of epic absurdity, a relentless and raucous send-up of Elizabethan and high school drama, and above all a tribute to the thankless theater parent, without whom the show would not go on. The pop culture references come at you fast and furious, hip-deep with turns of phrase both classic and current, as a troupe of teens unintentionally strive to produce several productions at once. It's smart, silly, and even subversive, as the playwright has created a Shakespearean showcase where the Bard himself is entirely absent! ”
  • People of the Book by Yussef El Guindi
    5 Apr. 2018
    “ Taken literally, El Guindi's play is about deception, professional and personal jealousy, and the effect of American wars in the Middle East. It's a great read, with playful and cutting dialogue, and it is also a metaphor for how American has played itself, chaining our fate to the region. Each of the four central characters reflect a different point of view, about art and writing, the war and its worth, and what responsibility the United States has yet to take for its actions. And each of them had my (shifting) sympathy. Highly recommended! ”
  • I Go Somewhere Else by Inda Craig-Galván
    4 Apr. 2018
    “ Our narrator, as a child, asks, "Aren't we supposed to love everybody? No matter what they've done to hurt us in the past?" When someone we love hurts us, we assume it is something we have done to deserve it. Even a blameless child thinks this. In this moving and insightful play, the playwright deftly lays out the story of a troubling mother-figure, leaving it squarely at our feet to understand her and to forgive her, as we strive to understand and forgive our own mothers. The way we hope our children may one day understand and forgive us. ”
  • The Tallest Building in the World by Matt Schatz
    3 Apr. 2018
    “ Schatz tells an expansive story with great economy, utilizing a small number of interesting characters who debate and kvetch with wit and passion to build a dream for the future. The tragedy as they see it is the predetermined ephemera of architecture. As the playwright points out, "architecture might be the only art form where the art is destroyed as a means of progress." We are sadly aware of the flaws in the logic of their design, and how the techniques employed to make the thing possible are also elements which will contribute to its eventual destruction. Highly recommended. ”
  • Monsters Are Made by Hannah C Langley
    2 Apr. 2018
    “ "You know you're a rapist but you don't even know what rape means." To what extent should we understand the assailant, the rapist? What do you do with a perpetrator who demands his own punishment, when doing so is merely another form of control, dominance, and presence?

    This is a strong two-hander, currently in development, one that poses difficult questions, with violence and humor, but openly searching for a true and honest path to justice and redemption. ”
  • Before Evening Comes by Philana Imade Omorotionmwan
    1 Apr. 2018
    “ A Dystopian parable, set in a near-future where all African-American men are legal bound to make a very specific sacrifice to maintain their own survival. In days past, those enslaved told of people who could fly (and escape their captors) and that story is wound up in this, a moving and lyric tale of the men who are complicit in the system and the women who sacrifice everything to save their children from it. Highly recommend. ”
  • The Family Claxon by Eric Coble
    16 Dec. 2017
    “ Relentlessly funny, delightfully grotesque, and an extremely timely allegory for 21st century America, this fast-paced disaster play pits one quintessentially fatuous modern family against the forces of entropy which currently envelop our society. And there's cake! ”

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