Recommended by Scott Sickles

Much like dipping a Reese’s Mini Cup into chocolate fondue, BEATRICE is a perfectly delicious hybrid of something that is mass produced and something that is lovingly homemade. The way Mandryk takes the familiar, from circumtances and backstory to individual lines you could say before the character does, then turns it all on its fleshy fleshy head… marvelous! Perfect for Halloween festivals but really ANY festival!

As someone with a legit beef against the Salvation Army which has its own deeply dark side, I reveled in this razor sharp and deathy deadpan satire! As always, Madryk’s broad strokes are make wickedly beatiful by a perfectly placed plethora of detail. The earnestness of both characters, one an innocent, the other a corruptor, only heightens the hilarity. If only organizations were this honest in real life. Fortunately, political candiates are! No really! Read this, you’ll see what I mean…

See, this is why we don’t and frankly should not have narrators in real life.

This instantly off-kilter amuse bouche takes the most quotidan task and slowly, sublimley, turns it into an eerie tale of comic horror. Mandryk’s mastery of detail is spot-on as ever, with a pinch of “wait” then a dash of “oh no…” The finish is delectable.

Disembodies voices are not always on your side. Beware of them.

Full disclosure: I'm totally #TeamVeruth.

Clearly inspired by a certain folk horror movie which many regard as genius (I'm sure they're all #TeamPiotr) and others like me view as a masterpiece of unitentional comedy, Prillaman turns the central event (and delicious details) of that story into an purposely hilarious domestic comedy!

The dialogue is stifled to perfection, The characters are divinely deadpan, evoking Scandinavian pathos to a poetically absurd degree. There's also a cavalcade of WTF moments that must be experienced to be believed!

A glorious wild ride in the midnight midsummer holiday sun! Sacrifice be damned!

An absolute joy to read aloud! And what a treat it will be to see it performed by a real actor with real sound effects!

Writing in mellifluously modern vernacular, Loewenstern takes the mythological blind prophet's backstory and turns it into a matter of extreme urgency for Zeus and Hera. HIs Tiresias is as wise as they are anxious (and who wouldn't be with inquisitors form Olympus?), as reverent as they are sassy, and above all as dignified as they can and should be. The deities themselves are hilarious offstages icons of self-absorption. Again, a delight all around!

So THAT'S how he does it!!!

The best Santa origin story ever (that doesn't involve David Harbour taking his shirt off, but that's more my territory anyway) and who better to set the future Father Christmas to his merry eternal task than our hero Pat the Exterminator. We also get a bit of backstory with him too!

A fun and fast paced holiday confection!

A delightful holiday can't-sleep-at-sleepytime confection with great celebrity cameos thanks to every insomniac's friend melatonin! It's as though something asked Steve's brain the "what three people dead or alive would you want to have dinner with" and his brain came up with a great answer! You'll fall back to sleep with a big silly grin.

What are morality and sanity when it comes to finding true love?

OBSTACLES! THEY ARE OBSTACLES THAT MUST BE CONQUERED OR CIRCUMVENTED! THAT’S WHAT!!!

Sorry, did you think I was being rhetorical? Well… that’s on you.

Mad Genius Greg Mandryk (hereafter “MGGM”!) confronts this complex theme by fashioning a very simple scenario. OR IS IT??? Regardless, the course of true love comes with alleyways and tributaries and oftentimes staunch resistance it’s impossible not to take personally.

Now, I’ve said enough relevant nothing to express my overwhelming enjoyment of this wild, wonderful something! Brace yourself! Hail MGGM!!!

There’s fragile masculinity and then there’s toxic masculinity. Add heartbreak and betrayal and the results can be implosive or explosive. This play is a science experiment in human zoology and emotional biochemistry. O’Day is especially adept at creating atmosphere: you can practically hear traffic noise and smell gasoline from nearby pumps. Most palpable is the heartache, the fractures in these two men who have both been hurt but have no immediate recourse than to struggle with each other, leading to an awakening of emotional and literary aspiration. At least for one of them. A glorious gutpunch.

This play lives in my bones, a zero-Kelvin shot pervading my marrow.

HEY BABE blooms like a poisonous flower then closes around you like a carnivorous one.

When someone surrenders control to another, there's a necessary trust. But when that trust is misplaced, when the person who holds that power has no intention of relinquishing it, when one's will is now a toy to be played with or discarded at whim... what CAN one do?

Marcus's methods are only slightly magnified by fiction, exquisitely simple, terrifyingly effective. A disturbing tale in a beautiful apartment weaponing words of love.