Ali Hardy

Fail Risk is a bold, unflinching new play about love, chronic illness, and survival. Following Peyton and Alex through the first five years of their marriage and the onset of a mysterious illness, it confronts guilt, burnout, and medical trauma while rejecting the “love conquers all” cliché. Centering the messy realities of illness, the play highlights the importance of trauma-informed medical care and the vital role of those who truly “get it” in surviving chronic illness.

An asexual chronically ill patient hires a sex worker and a professional cuddler in an attempt to reclaim bodily autonomy after medical trauma. Disguised as a kink negotiation, boundaries and power dynamics are tested when they realize there was far more to this scene than they originally consented to.

After ten years apart, Madison unexpectedly runs into her ex-girlfriend, Brooke, in a small-town coffee shop. What begins as an awkward reunion soon turns into a raw confrontation, reopening old wounds and unresolved emotions. As secrets surface, Madison’s attempts to rekindle their relationship clash with Brooke’s newfound trust in someone else, forcing both to face painful truths.

The show, which has been described as “The Vagina Monologues for Chronic Illness” is a partially devised, partially scripted piece in development. The script will feature a series of letters that members of the chronic illness community wrote between themselves and their illness, a medical professional, a caregiver, or a loved one. The letters give raw, unfiltered insight into the impact these illnesses have on the people who live with them and bring representation to a community often forgotten about.

Starting with the prompt “Dear (illness, doctor, caregiver, etc.), here are some things I’d like you to know about me…” members of the chronic illness community wrote a letter to their subject, then wrote an accompanying letter from the point of view of their subject back to themselves. The letters captured stories about the ways these various illnesses and people affected the lives of these writers, as well as stories from different places within the chronic illness experience.

Taking place at a graveside, Pain delivers a bitter farewell to its person. As the monologue unfolds, grief turns into confession, and the truth of what went wrong slowly comes to light.

A Millennial and a Baby Boomer form a rare bond in one act.

Grace, a twenty-something with hemiplegic migraines, goes to a support group for people living with chronic pain and illness where she finds she is the youngest person there by more than 30 years. Thinking she’ll have nothing in common with any of the group members, she meets Dennis, a man in his late 60’s who starts harassing her about being in the wrong place. What starts off as bickering between two people certain they’ll never understand each other quickly changes when they bond over a shared grief; his from a life he’s lost and hers from a life she’ll never have.

This dark comedy explores the grief experienced, friendships made, and bonds formed at the onset of chronic illness.

Fail Risk is a new play in development exploring the complexities of relationships and chronic illness. Originally part of a longer version, we have taken an isolated scene and reformatted it into a short play of its own. In this edition, we follow Peyton and Alex as they try to reintroduce intimacy into their relationship after Peyton has a mini stoke during sex.

A Millennial and a Baby Boomer form a rare bond in one act.

Grace, a twenty-something with hemiplegic migraines, joins a support group for people living with chronic pain and illness where she finds she is the youngest person there by more than 30 years. Thinking she’ll have nothing in common with any of the group members, she meets Dennis, a man in his late 60’s who starts harassing her about being in the wrong place. What starts off as bickering between two people certain they’ll never understand each other quickly changes when they bond over a shared grief; his from a life he’s lost and hers from a life she’ll never have.

This dark comedy explores the grief experienced, friendships made, and bonds formed at the onset of chronic illness.

*In this edition, the support group takes place on Zoom