Recommended by Maximillian Gill

I find this play remarkable in so many ways, most significantly just how funny it is at times. Doherty turns the characters up to a frantic volume, injecting every moment and interaction with a restless energy that leads these people to an inevitably somber close. The ending is both unexpected and inevitable as the hatreds and fears that drive these people dissolve into desperately sad self-examination. An intense, vital piece.

One of many things that impressed me about this play is how it lives so easily in both a very grounded reality and in a metaphorical space where connection and division play out in mythic ways. Through only four characters, the writer manages to create a whole world of interaction and conflict without ever losing the three young women at the center. The journey is harrowing and beautiful and the piece leaves us with no easy answers to the many lingering questions.

So much is packed into this tightly written piece. I can't recall another work of fiction that has so deftly explicated and integrated philosophy in such a meaningful and amusing way. Kate's lectures are a true delight that anchor her progression as a character. Both she and Ben are sharply rendered and their relationship real and sensitively examined. However, Leaf is the true stand-out character. He dominates this play in the best way, commenting and motivating the others with a sprightly wit. I'm truly dazzled by Stafford's assured grasp on these characters, dialogue, and the emotional arcs in this piece.

A wonderful piece that feels absolutely authentic for me and I'm sure for many of South Asian origin. Keshav is a fascinating character, the classic "more Indian than most Indians" and his first meeting with the parents is a tour-de-force. I love that the parents are great comic characters but never caricatures, and their own needs and views are genuine and powerfully rendered. I also fully appreciate the insertion of Bollywood song and would really enjoy seeing this one staged.

I love plays that commit to a very specific moment in time and capture the transition from one way of doing things to another. Bailey's piece is so detailed and real in its depiction of this time of change in the radio business that it feels written by someone who was in the industry and watched it all happen. The interaction between the two characters stays fresh and engaging, and the dialogue is consistently witty. Anyone who remembers radio as it used to be will appreciate the nostalgia without feeling trapped in it.

A wonderful, compact piece about genuine connections and overcoming your own challenges, whatever they may be. We truly feel for the three main characters and delight in their journeys to self-discovery and a deeper understanding of others. There is a passage describing birds that is one of the most elegant and apt metaphors for depression that I've ever read. The piece is sensitive and empathetic throughout. Very engaging work by Patterson.

This fascinating two-hander uses drama itself as a lens to examine romantic relationships and the tricky ways we negotiate them. Reality and performance merge until there is hardly any difference for the characters, suggesting that acts of love are themselves performative. The piece is witty throughout, particularly when the characters lean into bits that show how close their bonds are but also how difficult it is for them to connect outside of the dramatic versions of themselves. Well-rounded characters with a full history etched out organically. A wonderful play for two committed actors.

Such an endlessly fascinating and multi-faceted play. The use of bird imagery is an inventive stroke that propels us into absurdist territory even as it allows for rich metaphors and imagery. The unlikely central relationship manages to read as natural even as it explores the disturbing dimensions of intimacies evolving out of unequal power relationships. The perversion of the concept of "freedom" by a totalitarian state is expertly realized and lands close to home in very unsettling ways. So much is packed into this piece, yet it never feels over-stuffed. It absolutely needs to be fully realized on stage.

I automatically love a piece that delves into some deep-cut Shakespeare! Wagner's fine take on the "problem play" follows on the original's questioning of the standard narratives of heroism and masculine valor, but this piece goes further by upending the centrality of male figures in the classic legends. Wagner skillfully highlights the agency of the women and gives them complex motivations for actions that change the course of events in ways the men frequently don't see coming. Even Cassandra gets her due as we hear the true voice behind the wails of doom. A wonderful spin on a classic.

I have been consistently impressed by this writer's ability to create sharp, indelible characters. Now I find myself equally impressed with the writer's ability to create surprise and unexpected but welcome moments of humanity. I could not have anticipated where this piece would go, nor would I have imagined it could accomplish such a journey in a short running time, but I was fully convinced and delighted by the closure. Funny and heartfelt, a true gem of a short play.