Recommended by Scott Sickles

It may be a familiar scenario - a man and woman attracted to each other but one of them is involved with a jerk - but chances are you’ve not seen it in this setting, and certainly not with this man and woman. Weaver imbues his wannabe lovers with a yinyang of yearning and caution as they take tentative steps toward each other. There’s a monster nearby that has power over them both, simply and effectively creating eliciting the feeling of being trapped. It’s a series of fragile moments between people finding their first flicker of strength.

A relationship can often be a thrill ride: long, slow ups, plummeting descents, hairpin twists and turns... Mullen brings this metaphor to hilarious life by using the roller coaster itself as a mechanism for eliciting truth, honesty and emotion. The couple on the coaster have problems and we are rooting for them to resolve their issues by the end of the ride. But will they??? There are fun surprises and lots of fabulous screaming.

Much has been written about the Horsemen themselves: Pestilence, War, Famine and Death. But what about their horses? What do they want? Moreover, what have they been doing while waiting for their riders to need them for their sacred and ultimate crusade? And how they do they feel about that duty and what it means for the world?

Weaver explores these questions with an unexpected (for the topic) yet characteristic (for him) gentleness of heart. There is affection between the horses who have their own passions and zest for life. A warm and lovely look at Apocalypse prep.

Though Bigfoot may have been the prompt, the identity of presence in the woods is wisely and effectively left unidentified in the script, leaving the audience to either draw its own conclusions or, even better, be shaken by the mystery.

I saw the production at Mystic Vision Players’ Kicking and Swearing Festival. One of the stagehands found the play so haunting and disturbing, he would not be backstage while it was being performed. It freaked him out.

The primary monologue, a plea for salvation from a desperate women into an audible darkness, is a tour de force.

I never expected “a short play about war” to make me smile so much. There’s a great childhood nostalgia here that makes the grown-up metaphor about the titular subject all the more powerful. Hansen makes quick surgical cuts as he allows a game for chldren to teach his lesson without preaching. Bonus points for what may be the only realisitc and effective use of the line “You are a fool!” in all of literature.

I’m not sure if one is supposed to read this monologue aloud in the cadence of a classic film noir detective, but I’m also not sure that there’s any other way to recite this cascading indictment of, in its own words, "a planet unhinged from reason" as playwright Carbajal spirits us away on a retail expedition composed as though his muse was the angel-demon lovespawn of John Milton, Dante Alighieri, and F.W. Woolworth! One becomes completely immersed in the imagery, in the journey, in the ever growing horrific reality of this immortal Halloween tale! A classic!

A brave and challenging piece of writing, forcing the reader to examine morality, ethics, and legality – where they overlap and where they don’t. This assassin, in taking this life, may have helped save a nation. Or they have not have. It depends on who the victim was and what might have happened if that person had lived. The beauty in the piece is that the assassin has taken justice into their own hands twice, with the victim’s life and their own. There’s a moral balance being negotiated between salvation and atrocity with no easy answers. Bravo!

Delightful! Octopus Kid is a hero for our time and not just because he’s actively trying to save the world, but because he’s got the courage to do it in a makeshift costume representing another species, like a cephalopod Greta Thunberg! But while the kid is preachy, the piece is not. Humor tempers the ecological message, which is helped along by the intensity of the kid’s passion. Octopus Kid CARES! Deeply! As deep as the ocean. And we should too, about the earth and its costumed heroes.

Just saw this at the Gallery Players and what a delight it was! While the characters can be played by any man and woman believable as a married couple, I think it enhanced the piece to have actors in their 60s/70s.

The play itself is a fresh take on the age-old debate about the differences between men and women. The dialogue is frank without being coarse, even during a discussion of flatulence. There's a wonderful rhythm to it, as the conversation bobs and weaves. Best of all, the relationship created is genuine, funny, and beautiful.

Utterly riveting! A great piece of post-apocalyptic horror. That it's for teenage actors only heightens the menace, vulnerability and trauma. What they've seen, what they've learned, the decisions they've had to make... it would have been bad enough for adults but for kids, it's all the more horrific. Since for teenagers, EVERY DAY IS THE END OF THE WORLD, the drama is even more effective. If you've ever handled a crisis as an adolescent that should have been handled by adults, you'll empathize. Terrifically individualized characters, supercreepy offstage monsters, subtle exposition, and a complex moral dilemma. Loved it!