Recommended by Ian Thal

While the emotional journeys of June and Alice are central, it's Cefaly's attention to craft and structure that make the script stand out. The Alabama farmhouse is not an insularity, but intimately connected in surprising ways to a world that also includes NYC and Pakistan. Its themes of trauma and overcoming through acts of creativity are reflected the June's painting, Alice's photojournalism, and Cefaly's own experiments in fourth-wall breaking magical realism and strong sense of mythology.

Jonathan Spector's Eureka Day is a brilliant satire of how the utopian dream of the welcoming community can be an invitation to conspiracy theories, anti-scientific thinking, medical quackery, and toxic wokeness, whether into the curriculum of a progressive school or in a social media discussion. The social media scene, in particular, comprises a wonderfully hilarious cacophonous comic crescendo –– but Spector is sure to remind audiences of potentially tragic consequences as well. (I saw the 2019 Mosaic Theater Company of DC production.)

While Yeung mines academic wit and undergraduate glibness for comedy, "Theory" is a tragedy in the Hegelian sense: a collision of irreconcilable ethical world views and this collision makes for an immensely intelligent and provocative drama that will resonate with anyone who has ever had to question their beliefs or their allegiances and discomfort those who are too certain of themselves.

It's a thrill both on page and on the stage.

I reviewed the 2019 US premiere for Washington City Paper: https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/arts/theater/article/21096508/theor…...

Set in Haifa during Israel's Second War with Lebanon, "At Night's End" presents a nuanced, yet tragic inquiry into what it means to be a soldier for a democracy when a future in politics is closely linked to service -- and what the trauma of combat does to family life, generation after generation.

Motti Lerner is a tragedian in the truest sense of the word.

I reviewed a staged reading of "At Night's End" in 2012 presented by Israeli Stage:

http://artsfuse.org/51366/fuse-theater-commentary-a-complex-view-of-lif…

Andrew Clarke's script is a witty farce of academia that satirizes the recent tendency in the humanities to pursue connections with the pop-culture industry for dollars and seeming relevance (much as the sciences pursue corporate and government funding). Given the way some academic theater departments have sought to cozy up with the film, television, and video game industry in recent years, is Clarke biting the hand that feeds him? Maybe, but any satirist worthy of the name is going to bite a few hands.

I reviewed CentaStage's production of the 2015 premiere:

http://artsfuse.org/134077/fuse...

Laufer's sophisticated script addresses the ethical conflict between the legal principle of informed consent of the title and the utopian dreams of "big data" saving lives generations down the line. Laufer does not stack the deck: the betrayal of trust is tangible but even audiences will leave understanding the motives behind the betrayal. It's also a nuanced meditation on narrative: the history encoded in our DNA, legends that bind a people, children's books, and memories that can be stolen by dementia.

I reviewed the 2017 production by Apollinaire Theatre Company:

http://artsfuse.org...

It would be easy for a full-length play composed of vignettes, beginning and ending much the same way, with commuters boarding and exiting a train, to seem repetitive, but Willis stretches the format as far as it can go, embracing every genre. One of the play's strengths is just how assertively hyper-local it is to the D.C. metropolitan area -- there is no attempt to make it a generic "Big City™" -- but any rider of public transit in any city will relate.

I reviewed Pinky Swear Production's 2018 staging:

https://dcmetrotheaterarts.com/2018/04/15/review-use-all-available-door…...

Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's "410[GONE]" is a post-modern melding of Buddhist philosophy, Chinese mythology, digital-pop-culture, clowning, and family tragedy provides a genre-bending thrill ride that generates both laughter and the contemplation on mortality and loss.

I reviewed the 2018 Rorschach Theatre production:

https://dcmetrotheaterarts.com/2018/03/28/review-410-gone-at-rorschach-…

Seinuk knows her mythology, and drawing upon not just Genesis but also Greek and Norse mythology. Her allusions to and repetitions of mythological violence elevates Eyes Shut. Door Open. above the popular plot formula of dark domestic secrets revealed at a family reunion.

I reviewed the 2015 production by Wax Wings Productions for The Arts Fuse. The full review can be read here:

http://artsfuse.org/132576/fuse-theater-review-eyes-shut-door-open-cain…

ALLEGRA GRAY treats the protagonist's decision to either keep or abort a pregnancy as a very personal drama: As a local celebrity, she is forced not only consider how her decision will affect her family, but her career, and ability to live in her city, as she becomes the target both of well-wishers and advocacy groups unafraid to engage in public shaming. Wyndham's play avoids simple moralizing, rather dealing with how individuals must navigate the myriad balance ethical demands they can only face on their own.