Recommended by Scott Sickles

Is there any place more desolate than a motel balcony in the dead of winter? Hilder has built a darkly elegant world, as if Hopper painted a Clive Barker hardback cover. What the right director or festival design team could to with lights, set pieces, costumes, sound – theatergasm!

But the heart is what's at stake here, and compassion has its price. In a crisis, red flags blend with their surroundings, and we would all take the same risks Heather does. Oh well!

Chilling in every sense. Bravo!

We've all been to this party. Underpopulated, so there's no escape from the ONE PERSON who exists solely to disturb, disgust, and unsettle everyone else. We've all had this friend: the one who loves that ONE PERSON and is blind to how disturbing, disgusting, and unsettling they are. Gibbs, however, has turned the tables, creating a slovenly dripping grotesque we can't help but love. As for the host and the guest: love is love and acceptance should be on the holiday menu, right next to the eggnog.

There's a surprising elegance to this heist/hostage noir. Kaminski takes a familiar setup – a woman held captive by two criminals, one brutal and the other more compassionate – and fills the ensuing negotiation with layered characterizations and a few choice surprises. The tension builds cleanly toward unexpected revelations. A certain mystery hangs in the air early on and its payoff is beautiful on many levels. The callback to two of the U.S.'s worst presidents is a nice bonus. Lovely all around.

Nothing like anthropomorphized reindeer comic noir to keep you in the holiday spirit! Braverman takes the beloved holiday song about an elderly woman's gruesome yuletide animal encounter and adds yet another hilariously dark layer to it. The rhythms, tones, and tropes are pitch perfect as the reindeer (plural) in question face a hard boiled police interrogation. Will they fly away home free or end up hoosegow venison? Only way to find out is to get in the sleigh, and it's a heck of a ride!

Wyndham's been on a roll for a while with searing political monologues and BROKER is one of the best. I chose it because, as a city boy, I didn't know agricultural real estate brokers were a thing. Now, I do! And the job, this character, the whole scenario... all fascinating! As ever, Wyndham skillfully weaves politics into active dramatic argument, building throughout then landing hard. The words and cadences are pure music so read this one aloud. Really get into it! You'll discover America.

Just today I was remembering Orange Alerts in NYC after 9/11. Orange Alert indicated the city was under "high risk of terrorist attack." It essentially lasted (with negligible respites) for nine years. It was life.

Active shooter drills have been going on since more than twice as long. Two *full generations) don't remember a time before they existed.

DRILL is a perfect snapshot of the numbness and boredom of living under constant threat. Of course, Kaplan delivers with perfect poetry. A stunner.

A sharp, delightful distillation of the eternal debate about appropriation vs authenticity. Faute cleverly examines all sides of the argument with surgical conciseness while letting the characters shine. There's a deep core of emotion and insecurity beneath the banter. This is a conversation nearly every playwright has had either with themselves or with other playwrights while they playwright they're talking about isn't in the room. Inspiration, exploration, and envy - it's all here!

I was expecting a noir. I did not get a noir. it's not a spoiler since it's clear that noir is not in the cards. Or is it? We have a hapless man, a decisive woman, a contract for violence, deception, desire, twits, turns – perhaps it is a noir! Either way, it's beautifully absurdist, well-paced, and funny with great characters, effervescent dialogue, and a shadowy tone in which the lightness of the banter mingles with the darker nature of desire. What desire? That's a whole other surprise.

I once received the greatest compliment and today, I pass it on to Vince Gatton: "Fuck you for writing this play." No one writes about gun violence with his intimacy and economy. Each line, every moment, is perfectly naturalistic poetic realism. From repeated phrases to repeated movements. Dissertations could be written about the smallest beats. And the heart of this play is as impossibly delicate as it is infinitely vast. Even the title: three words and a comma devastate in restrospect. Perfect!

Have yourself a meta little Xmas with this spirited sendup of holiday noir (oh it’s a subgenre all right!) as a femme fatale summons three ghosts while issuing a cease and desist through a certain PI against two lunatics who hold her existence in their ever typing hands. Christmas and Beatles lyrics abound because why bother with consistency now? Clearly this author and his parter in Pie are a menace! Tonally pitch perfect with red and green blending with classic black and white! Plus fruitcake!