Recommended by Robin Rice

I so love the surprise! We need more of this good feeling. More!

Past, present and hope for the future are captured in this brief moment, this time set in amber in BLACKCURRANT JAM. As one woman has her ritual tea and toast, shut inside as most of us are during the coronovirus seige, she transitions into seeing a brighter future and thereby brings a breath of spring to all of us. The undercurrent (no pun intended) of the monologue isn't, however, restricted to the specific corona quarantine time. Like jam, it may be spread out, over any life at any time. So specific it's universal.

Phillie and Barbie are best friends since childhood. We root for them to remain best friends forever, these kids who support each other through thick and thin (including multi-dimensional parents who don't proceed gently). We follow Phillie and Barbie into adulthood, and damn - their friendship comes apart at gut-level seams. I'm left shaken when Phillie discovers he has been rejected in a terribly crushing way. DeVita leaves us with friends who are now "indistinguishable from any other middle aged childhood friends who’d stayed too long at the party."

Everything makes sense in the technological Babel that is the future world of this play. Frightening sense. The choices presented to the characters couldn't be more fateful. In a world where babies who are less than "perfect" are sent to live in an underground village, the choice to end a pregnancy or to value life despite the powers-that-be couldn't be more difficult. In Goldfinger's skillful play the story's impact is immediate and chilling. Her world is imaginary, but the link to today is very real. Think long and hard before you press that button in the voting booth!

I saw a reading of this play and it is memorable. Smart, relevant, real, wild, and hysterically funny!

Oh my goodness -- hold onto your hat! This comic romp follows a couple through marriage in a ride that's sexy, crazy, wild and side-splitting. Underneath is a solid platform of truth about marriage and raising children. Never a dull moment.

Brave and beautifully crafted. This story will shake you down to your toes. It is a very original look at sexual abuse. We see the protagonist at three stages in her life -- all of them interacting, often humorously. This provides a distancing effect which allows us to watch and listen without putting up protective defenses. The play is ultimately uplifting. I wish every person who has suffered abuse but not been able to confront it could see this play and be strengthened by it.

MAN & WIFE is hysterically funny, incisively smart, and many-layered. It is also structured to my strict standards. The characters are multi-dimensional, quirky, and very real. We root for first one, then the other. We care about them, sitting on the edges of our seats so we don't miss what comes next. I can count the number of excellent, two-actor, full-length plays on one hand. This is one of them. (My husband, who rarely chuckles out loud at anything, was laughing audibly throughout.) - Robin Rice (playwright, audience member)

Themes twine intricately around this love triangle. Personalities leap out -- inevitable, secretive, manipulative, fierce. No cliche solution here. A smart, sophisticated play that will have you rooting for alternately one character, then another.