Recommended by Zach Barr

THE MODEL PLAY requires extremely committed performers, and it was lucky enough to have five of them in its vibrant world premiere at Snails On A Bike. Perfectly riding a line between shockingly humorous and humorously shocking, Doppelt's episodic story scrambles the audience's sense of what it means to perform, to hide, to speak honestly, to lie confidently, to give it all away while holding it all back. They walk the catwalk, they draw you in, and you search for truth behind the (l)eyes.

A story centered on a sticky question of what it means to truly "know" or "trust" someone, and whether forgiveness is an act of grace or a surrender. Asking whether Hero's desire to marry Claudio is just as much a consequence of how other people have told her to act as much as Beatrice's romance with Benedick is a truly inspired parallel to draw. A joyful, sisterly narrative of poetry, wine, wooing, penis hats, shattered glass, and deep abiding love.

A human story of global decay, told with admirable commitment to how characters would realistically react in this situation: with scattered attempts to trust each other, and an underlying fear of everything. Big swings of magical realism in the latter half provide great opportunities for stage magic and creative problem-solving. The ending will sit with me for a while.

At its heart, a play about teenagers navigating different kinds of intimacy – either physical, emotional, or ideological. Both acts have such contrasting energies, and both mirror the teenage mind in structure, from segments of rapid speed into long silent stretches. I'm obsessed with how this play would sound out loud, the space it would take up. Set in two liminal spaces for the liminal part of these characters' lives. Not much happens, and everything matters.

From the initial shock and humor of the premise, this one-act develops slowly but surely into real emotional catharsis, purely on the strength of its fluff-brained commitment to this maddening, disturbing idea. Sickos will love this one (I'm sickos).

Three difficult tasks are set out for Rader's charming two-hander: communicate a variety of emotional states and how children can handle them, explain them in the language of Lewis Carroll, and then take those points and place them in dialogue with the language of A.A. Milne. That the script achieves all three, and manages to be funny and propulsive to boot, is an accomplishment worthy of praise and – to quote Eeyore – "a little consideration."

A script that takes elements of Woolf's original story and places them together in an utterly unexpected way, like a mosaic made of a shattered stained glass window. Tongson's play is not an "adaptation," but nonetheless reaches into the same corners of the human heart that the original novel did. Anchored by two plush roles and some electric dialogue, it's both an effortlessly enthralling love story, and an enormous theatrical undertaking – not unlike romance itself.

A clean, sparse, and unflinching translation of Dreyer's film to the stage – it's unadorned nature leaves so much room for future productions to embellish, or place their own stamp on a timeless passion play.

At a climactic moment, Joelle writes the stage direction "Everyone falls in love with everyone just a little bit." I can't think of a better summation of this floridly romantic script, a tone poem of yearning for freedom, a quiet rage against the social spheres of the late Victorian era. Familiarity with "Mrs. Dalloway" is not required, though it does illuminate the script in subtle ways, gesturing towards Woolf's own recurring themes of autonomy and desire. This one sticks with you.

"Do you think justice comes from truth?" "I wish it were that simple."
Praise should be levied at this script's twistingly unique mystery, or its quick pace and heightened theatricality. But what ultimately drew me in deeper was the richly drawn bond between Josie and Brewster – a lovely push-pull that drives both the murder-solving plot and the identity-sharpening story. Throw in some tangled conversations about pursuing justice over truth, and it's a hell of a mystery play.