Recommended by Scott Sickles

Civic pride is a funny thing.

Usually it’s sports teams, medical centers, cultural institutions. Sometimes, it’s a statistic - a quantifiable bit of history that sets the town apart.

Statistics are inherently competitive. They exist for comparison. Sometimes, civic comparisons are taken personally. Credit to these townspeople for not engineering the results. Witnessing and celebrating them is more than enough.

Lawing has magnified part of America. The style is JG Ballard, meets Rand McNally meets the Guinness Book of World Records, with the speed and impact of a crash and the bewilderment of walking away from a wreck.

O the vanity! O the ego!
O the vainglorious fantasism of this vein-thirsty ursine plushie!

Even a night at the theater is an adventure! One in which he is both hero and villain, raging against the elements, biting a neck and stealing the spotlight for the greater good!

Plumridge and Bear strike again with magnificent flair and an even more magnificent wardrobe!

Delicious and delightful, like the blood of an aristocrat inebriated on absinthe with the adventurous gusto of a child’s best dream!

DEATH FOLLOWS COLE DZUBAK!!!

Or at least undeath. If it’s not in the dorms, it’s years before in his high school theater. Is it the same entity? Are they different? Want do they want from him???

We don’t get to know before Cole does and while the spirits may laugh and move things around, explaining themselves is not a priority!

Too bad for the scared young man in these plays but what a delight for us! Dzubak gets a lot of mileage in a short time with this one. Fun and creepy! Loved it!

Whether the ghosts are memories or spiritual manifestations, they amount to the same thing: a haunting. The voices we hear in our heads, when past losses converge with fresh grief, make the same admissions, offer the same excuses and disclaimers, absolve themselves with declarations of misunderstood love. The tragedy is not that Richard waited too long to return home, but that the lack of resolution he experiences is probably the best case scenario. With all the heartache caused by his estrangement, it would have been so much worse if he’d returned sooner. Resonant, stirring, heartbreaking.

What’s starts out breezy, messy, saucy and hilarious takes a scathing turn in this glorious satire. Kat Sparks embodies everything that’s wrong with America as Wyndham puts her grotesqueries in sharp relief. Neither playwright nor character comes out and makes a direct political statement, but rather lets Kat’s belief system, ambition, and personal inappropriateness do all the talking. A vivid portrayal of a contemptible opportunitist.

So real, so natural, it could almost be a transcript. In fact, the only thing that gives it away as a play is that it is perfectly structured. The arc of the piece is precisely parabolic, but not in a way that feels at all stagy. These are people we know, or have been, or both. The circumstances they discuss ground it in a specific period of the pandemic, yet the emotionality and effortless backstory make it timeless. They feel like our friends and at the end, we’re left with the sensation of being confided in. Absolutely lovely.

Call me a pessimist, but I don’t see any of these Miskatonic matriculants making it to graduation. Hell, they’ll be lucky if they make it to tapas and fondue!

But hey, at least they’re trying to organize an extracurricular, and with no lack of ambition!

As always, Soucy immerses us into a horrifically absurd and absurdly horrific realm with great humanity and aplomb! One can’t help rooting for the demons but these moral morsels and their juicy jejune-osity with make a fine amuse bouche for the appetite of an Elder God!

Onward, Guardians! Smite away!

THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELS YOU… to read this delightful dating ditty from Don!

More about friendship than sex or romance, we’ve all been the one over the moon about the new great demon, at least when we’re not being the feet-on-the-ground, one-hand-on-hip/other-hand-gripping-our-own-hair calmly asking “are you sure about this?”

I hope things go well for Roger. He deserves a little hell raising.

Cosmic horror and admin! Two great tastes that taste great together! Especially in the hands of master of spoofery Jon Busser!

It’s not easy being an ancient demonic vessel of insanity and chaos in these modern times when everyone has access to everyone else, so we all have even more reason to be extra protective! Wonderfully rhythmic nuttiness enhances the proceedings, and even Cthulhu himself isn’t immune to being amusing. Great fun!

MADNESS, INDEED! These two impetuous lovebirds seem so staid at first. Clearly they too would assess themselves as such. But there’s a mischief lying dormant underneath, like a teeny tiny volcano, and like the glow of the lava, it all surfaces with a red light! Fun, funny, wonderfully observed, a great short journey in ages and miles with a delightful destination!