Recommended by Paul Donnelly

A grandmother/granddaughter bonding trip in which they play an old family mystery game melds seamlessly into an actual tragic mystery. The subtle build is absolutely engrossing and the payoff is both startling and credible.

The connection that emerges between this unlikely couple is revealed wittily and movingly in this well-crafted two-hander. The characters are vividly drawn and their neediness is revealed with great skill.

This extraordinary play offers a stirring and humane examination of the life and fate and feelings of the sole survivor of the House of Oedipus. The resonance of the current plague and the reliance on technology ups the ante. The mundane and the extraordinary aspects of therapy are well-represented. The final image is both searing and hopeful and the last line offers a witty kicker. i was held rapt throughout.

Four vivid and compelling characters, each with a moving backstory, reveal three vivid and compelling fantasy worlds (one world is shared by two brothers). The fantasy worlds are coping mechanisms that allow the characters to handle the abuse and disappointments, the grief and failures, that have marred their lives. As they share the final fantasy, the possibility of healing emerges. This play takes us on a wildly theatrical and richly imaginative journey.

This play seems to become more terrifyingly prescient with each passing day. It offers a gripping look at a not too distant future when the country is run by intolerant Christian fundamentalists and other citizens are reduced to a rag-tag resistance. The world-building of this play is first rate and the characters are complex and compelling. Let us hope that this credible dystopian vision doesn't come to pass.

What seems at first to be a layered, witty and a touch supernatural portrait of a group of patients in extremis is revealed to have quite another purpose in this quirky comedy

What a withering exploration of the desperation of asylum seekers and the viciousness of the system that evaluates and usually rejects their claims. The game show format satirizes the process, but ultimately implicates the audience in its cruelty. This is a harrowing, but most urgent work.

I feel seen by this witty celebration of the writer's resilience and all the obstacles that resilience faces. They're all here, fear of rejection, actual rejection, competition, procrastination and resignation as despairing One is prodded along by smug Another. This duality encompasses the write's struggle and rings true.

This gripping play presents five complex and real human beings grappling with very different expectations of and reactions to attempts at having a child. Their emotional struggles are compelling and vividly rendered, and punctuated with moments of laugh-out-loud humor. The final bonding of two disparate characters is heartening and affirming. This piece is filled with images and situations that will stick with me for a long time to come.

What a gripping dystopian and psychological thriller. There is a unique and compelling voice at work here and credible and specific world building. The themes of the importance of dreams and the derivation of names undergird the absorbing narrative. The overarching aura of menace is punctuated by surprising and engaging bursts of humor. All-in-all an impressive display of craft.