←

Michael C. O'Day

Recommended by Michael C. O'Day

  • Fixed by DC Cathro
    20 Jun. 2023
    “ A sweet, sad little gem of a two hander, Cathro's FIXED has some lovely points to make about the difficulties of connection, and how the armor we build up around ourselves to protect ourselves from our personal pain has a habit of wounding others in ways we never expect. A terrific duet for two actors that finds music in unexpected places. ”
  • The Bed Trick by Jillian Blevins
    19 Jun. 2023
    “ It can be hard to create a piece of theater which interrogates the screwed-up unspoken values of theater while still remaining vividly theatrical - but don't tell that to Blevins, who makes it look absurdly easy. THE BED TRICK takes the disturbing trope of its title, flips our moral assumptions about its archetypal characters completely on their ear, then burrows into the psychology of three damaged characters - all trapped by the values of the world that gave us the bed trick in the first place - to devastating effect. ”
  • Simon Says by Erin Moughon
    19 Jun. 2023
    “ Great horror stories all require real-world anxieties and fears to fuel their make-believe boogeymen - here it's the myriad of ways the world contrives to take away our agency, our ability to consent - and Moughon is a great horror writer. She's also the rare horror writer who can make the form work in theater, and SIMON SAYS is a blistering little display of mastery. ”
  • The Presidential Chili Cook Off by Scott Sickles
    19 Jun. 2023
    “ Like Mel Brooks and the Zucker Brothers before him - and he more than earns the comparison here - Scott Sickles takes the narrative bedrock of ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN and builds upon it a dazzling contraption, firing off puns and pratfalls and vaudeville gags both high and low. Sickles does have serious topics on his mind - the insidious reach of propaganda, the resurgence of racism and fascism - but, again like Brooks, he knows how valuable humor is at getting the message across. Better even than a small town newspaper. ”
  • Rocket Yourself to the Moon by Charlotte Lang
    12 Jun. 2023
    “ Biting and hysterical, Lang takes unerring aim at the designs and delusions of late-stage capitalism with a zippy, delirious, demented vaudeville. Medical disclaimers will never be the same. ”
  • sorry sorry okay sorry by Emily Elyse Everett
    12 Jun. 2023
    “ An astonishingly assured piece of work, both bitingly funny and devastating beyond belief. Everett is a master of dialogue, her characters managing to accidentally eviscerate each other to a gasp-inducing degree through the very language of psychological healing and conflict avoidance. (And I mean inducing literal gasps - this play does a number on an audience!) And in her portrayal of young adults shaped by unthinkable trauma, whose lives are further complicated as their coping strategies keep backfiring, she comes pretty damn close to Voice of a Generation territory. ”
  • Is This All This Is by Dave Osmundsen
    17 May. 2023
    “ Osmundsen has gathered up all our current anxieties about identity - sexual, social, economical, political, neurodiverse - and crafted a family drama that embraces a multitude of topics with ease, and with an almost crystalline purity to its craftsmanship. It makes a brilliant, sneaky point - that the social cues and mores its autistic characters have difficulty with are the very things thwarting its neurotypical characters' chances at fulfillment - without ever resorting to cliche or platitude to do so. Instead, it's a profoundly truthful, visceral, beautiful piece of work. ”
  • Just Right by Megan Lohne
    20 Apr. 2023
    “ What seems at first glance to simply be a cute high concept - it's Goldilocks and Baby Bear! years later! and they swiped right on Tinder! - quickly becomes something much richer, stranger, and even heartbreaking. Lohne finds ever more ingenious ways to explore notions of survivor guilt and the difficulties of forgiveness, both of ourselves and others. Smart, moving, and genuinely adorable. ”
  • Quiche by Brandon Monokian
    19 Apr. 2023
    “ Giddy and demented, Monokian has taken all the ways our culture associates "sex" with "death" and transfigured them into a delirious, surreal mix of teenage soap opera, social satire, and serial killer thriller. With zombie cheerleaders and a talking chihuahua, of course. ”
  • The Eighteenth Quinquennial Endlings Picnic by Jillian Blevins
    6 Mar. 2023
    “ It should be too unbearable to watch, even to contemplate - our current environmental crisis is bad enough, but to explore it through five sweet, soon-to-be-extinct animals having a sad little picnic?! And yet this magnificent piece is compulsively watchable (compulsively readable, anyway), brimming with revolutionary fervor, smart stagecraft, and unexpected humor. ("Not all frogs play banjo" is the best out-of-left-field laugh line I've seen in a good long while.) ”

Pages