Recommended by Christine Foster

An awkward encounter between an estranged son and his dying father veers for just an instant into inspired clarity (and clairvoyance) through the use of a simple, powerful device you don't see coming. I got shivers glimpsing the real implication of their impending loss. A lovely piece.

Goony Bird Hat is a bit like a stroll through a fantastical art gallery where every line is a striking absurdist painting. Historic, histrionic, literate and loony, perceptive, poetic and great fun!

I would love to see this as part of a longer piece because once we get the twist (and it's a good one) we really want to know more about what's going to happen next! It's nicely timed as is - the discovery, the opportunity, yes, but wow, there will be huge complications to come. Meanwhile it's a fun, clever idea well realized and a great two hander for teens.

Norkin has captured all the familiar and uncomfortable aspects of flying and used it as a background to explore something quite different: Empathy and attraction in a gentle satire on the limitations and possibilities of AI. Along the way we enjoy clever dialogue and amusing allusions. (eg the robotic co-pilot is called Jack Armstrong). Good fun.

With the barest of nods to Bus Stop and The Petrified Forest, Ruyle plunges us into his own unique and evocative stormbound frozen moment in time where cultures and decency and hope and prejudice collide. The characters are tenderly drawn (particularly Bertha, born to be a matriarch but never having had the chance...yet.) Cherished recipes, past mistakes and desires for the future are cautiously shared. It's an achingly beautiful play.

I love pieces with endings I didn't see coming, and this one delivers. Kay is a disloyal and reprehensible little whiner who would be great fun to play (in fact I would have even liked a bit more of her bonkers blinkered obsession) The other parts are neatly drawn and there is a satisfying double twist at the end.

"Adulthood is very depressing, that's how you know you're doing it right." This well-crafted comedy is as thought provoking as it is clever, with some truly funny physical gags as well. There are riffs on responsibility and life-and-love-avoidance as well as nerve-touching discoveries and aftershocks as the characters learn to do less emotional distancing and crowd in for a close-up, new-fashioned happy ending. Lots of fun.

The dialogue of these two semi-reclusive seniors is perfectly observed - hesitant, polite, elliptical and completely disarming in its gentle risk-taking. We're not sure how honest either will be about loss or loneliness, and delighted when it turns out it's just the right amount for them to take a step on a new journey.

This cleverly conceived short play starts in the best comic tradition with a quaint and dotty elderly couple dealing in a rather compassionate way with their homeless housebreaker. Their repartee is measured, assured, charming, but their motives well, that's the dark and devilish twist. Great fun.

Both raw and literate, this devastating piece offers searing, personal insight into neurodivergent thinking (when the brain flat out works against the person trying to use it) piled on top of systemic prejudice, trauma, complications of Covid, loss and longing. The anticipated staging is ambitious, imaginative and gripping. Note: this play has graphic (though integral) realistic intimacy that may not be everyone, but then again maybe it should be, because it is, above all, triumphantly, honest. And "I won't survive you twice" is a line I'll never forget.