Recommended by Toby Malone

Hilary Bluestein-Lyons makes a smart choice here, filtering Angela's story of discovering she has a long-lost sister through the lens of a Tik-Tok video, something that is both emblematic of our current situation and builds in an automatic time-limit for each segment. What would have been interesting before is now infused with the vanity, the self-effacing humor, the casualness of confessing to strangers. This story, grounded in trauma, comes across in a light and dismissive fashion, but there's an undercurrent that would be a great challenge for any actor taking this on.

I kept seeing this monologue pop up on the front page so I decided it was time to check it out - it's highly praised for good reason. This is an introspective, honest piece with a nice sense of humor, and the casting directive that Matthew is played by a woman is a wrinkle that brings really fun texture to the work. A nicely self-aware piece.

A Kafkaesque roller-coaster through a job interview that goes from seeming like a home run to a dud in no time, with our hapless interviewee watching her chances at a job ebb inexplicably down the drain. A nice two-hander that shows that even if you do everything right, some people can't be pleased. Honestly, Audrey seems like she dodged a bullet.

A taut, tension filled masterclass for any solo actor, playing multiple levels and layers with the benefit of a hugely evocative setting and sky-high stakes. The achievement here is that Lamedman does not stray into parody or caricature here, but plays this as true to the source, respectfully eyeing Poe while still deferring to the entertainingly theatrical. This would be a great journey for any performer.

The art of speaking in iambic pentameter can feel daunting to neophytes and maddeningly obvious to more experienced actors, and Samantha Marchant brilliantly explores this notobviousobvious process by writing a central character with an unexpectedly different metrical name. The emphasis that you don't pronounce Zoé in the same way you pronounce Zoë is a subtle yet impactful way in to the structural mysteries of Shakespeare, and here we have three very distinctive, wonderful characters all jockeying for position in Juliet's first scene of R+J. Wonderfully imaginative and very effective.

A gritty, sobering short that brilliantly juxtaposes the plight of a brother-and-sister pair of junkies looking for a fix, and the setting of a church's Sunday school daycare room. The pair squabble over pulling a scam to get their fix while falling deeper and deeper into dope sickness. A play that lets us know that this is far from rock bottom for these two, a heartbreaking reality in today's world.

A delightful, lightning-quick meta play where actors are unable to move without permission from the stage directions, which become increasingly outlandish, until the actors rebel against them. Fast, fun, and knowing.

A very clever triptych of plays based around a simple premise - unlucky-in-love sister brings over her new date, but he's a classic horror movie monster - which gets better each time it is repeated, until finally we are set up for a big payoff in the final go around. Plenty of fun and a surefire hit as an in-between the plays entry for a Halloween play festival.

A fearless, sharp-as-a-whip farce that follows a medieval French criminal trial designed to prosecute a murderous, mouthy pig. Like, the animal. Jacobi builds a world that is self-aware and hilarious, taking the time to follow the multi-day trial and its inevitable outcome, with a deft wit and brilliant character choices. This one's a gem.

"I feel we’ve taken things to a weird place stylistically."

This is a stunning, aware, rollicking take on 'Julius Caesar', with the pertinent points of Portia and Brutus's story plucked out of a 'rejects box' by a network Showrunner, and then interrogated and explored... so audacious and fresh, so witty and real. Just wonderful stuff.