Recommended by Toby Malone

A devastating, beautifully crafted survivor's tale that weaves skilfully between memory and imagination, between thought and action, all supported by a bratty, wilful, wise Ophelia who walks alongside Jane as she wrangles with her trauma and survivor's guilt. Brilliantly intense and thoughtful, this play brings the trauma of survival to the fore and offers no easy answers or resolutions. Wonderful work.

Do you know how hard it is to make adult friends who share your interests? It's really, really hard: everyone's got their own thing, and family, and baggage... So you meet someone new and they have everything you are looking for, with a few minor quirks, such as the... er... satan worship. But that's fine, we can just fake it for the sake of having some new adult friends, right? That's the situation Daniel Prillaman richly explores in this crackling short, as a precocious six-year-old calls out the flaws with mommy's new friends. Terrific as usual from Prillaman.

In a world where we all scramble to collect as much 'stuff' as we can and hoard it away inside our homes, Martin's brutal takedown of an abusive pair of parents through the carefully-careless dispersion of their lives' collection of material possessions is breathtaking. The revenge-fantasy of not only selling a tormenter's entire life's worth for five hundred bucks but then to mark their tombs with cheap concrete slabs is cathartic and impactful, even if we were not there to share Cassie's torment. Great stuff as ever from Steve Martin.

A direct, relatable piece that teeters on the edge of potential disaster as a heavily pregnant woman argues with an imagined version of her deployed husband, weaving back and forth between early labor and fear that his latest letter home from active duty might contain bad news. A gentle, loving piece with a great central role, and the convention of physicalizing Johnnie gives plenty of opportunities for laughs. Well done.

A beautifully intimate, fearless one-person show which acts as autobiography, confessional, and bucket list checker all at the same time. What better way for Megan to work her way through her ambition of playing Lady Macbeth than to explain all the reasons why she shouldn't - which winds up being the exact reason why there are elements to that play that are perfect for her - even beyond the femme fatale? This is honest, raw, hilarious, and totally accessible. Terrific stuff.

Wow. The feeling of dread and inevitability that shows up in the first paragraph of this monologue never lets you go for a second, as you know where this is headed and you can't possibly figure out how to make it go right. The heartbreaking admission of a driver's-ed teacher who has one form of crisis training but not the one he needs is frank, poignant, and vital to where we are in the world right now. This would be a great actor's challenge. Great work.

The hapless Carl Dimby has his confidence elevated, and then shattered, by being narrated at by the ubiquitous voice-over guy speaking nonsensical bromides with tremendous authority. Carl tries to take his newfound voice-over confidence along on a date, only to find there is a price to be paid for having such a wingman. This would be a blast for a small cast to workshop and perform.

Sometimes it takes a playwright pushing things to their extremest ends to make you realize just how nearby those ends seem. This is a haunting, plausible, terrifying short play that may seem like several steps too far but haven't we already gone many steps past too far and watched the world shrug? Where does it stop?

An impactful, heartbreaking monologue about how service renders veterans lost and struggling with hardly a way out. Adam is drunk throughout and is sensitively drawn, avoiding the caricature that he could become but rather exposing the raw pain of feeling passed by, dismissed, abandoned. Sadly too real.

Sometimes all you need to start your day is a fun, quippy, to-the-point short about two disillusioned coyotes lamenting the fact that they eat a couple of house cats and _they_ are suddenly the bad guys? Ralph and Bert have an easy, playful connection that definitely asks questions about everyone's place on the food chain. Lots of fun.