Recommended by Toby Malone

We don't get any context as to why this couple is apart for the first time in seven years, but boy do we get a lot of clues. A succinct, heartbreaking little play that affirms that 'time apart' can make the heart grow fonder... but not for everyone.

A stunning, aching meditation on life, love, and friendship, and how sometimes the relationships we leave behind and the choices we make leave trauma and regret. Rawlings beautifully captures the heartache of abandonment when it's impossible to quantify the betrayal of a friend being passed over for marriage, dashing the dreams of fantasy scenarios of "if we're not married by a certain date we'll marry each other." Expertly crafted, with a beautiful use of the river motif intertwined with the maid of honor's speech. Breathtaking work.

An absolute RIOT of a radio play, John Busser takes the form and genre and lovingly slaps it across the face with sound effects, quips, gags, and enough meta references to require one hell of a handsome universal donor. No matter what the characters in the play tell you, this is one writer who knows EXACTLY how to write an amazing radio play.

A taut ten minute play that explores the preoccupations that we find to avoid the things we really should be thinking about. Chelsea is a great, deep character with her laser focus on rescuing a feral cat from coyotes that is ultimately a metaphor for her own anxiety.

As a long-suffering Toronto sports fan (I guess not so much since last year's Raptors and a couple years of decent Blue Jay teams), this wonderful play hit me right in the YOGO muscle: the sense that You Only Get One team in each sport for your life. Jacob York's love letter to Atlanta sports is wrapped around a witty, heartfelt drama about love, loyalty, and getting what we (think we) want. Lovely work!

A crackling, sparkling piece that begins with the audacious scenario of a reunion between former hostage-takers and their victims in a cabin in the Pacific Northwest, that feels immediate, urgent, and necessary right now. Max Gill gives a virtuoso take on what might have devolved into sitcom-land, by developing an ever-changing dynamic that rumbles with menace at every turn, as the unpredictable clash with the fearless and back again. I could see this produced across the country. Grab it, now.

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.