Recommended by Arthur M Jolly

  • A Lady Who Collects Spiders Meets A Gentleman Who Collects Snakes
    4 Jul. 2018
    Fun and silly - while written for adults, I could see this one working really well for a school production. It has a sweet message about "different" people finding and accepting each other.
  • IN TRAINING
    4 Jul. 2018
    Intriguing - engaging. More fun than reaching into a bag of snakes in the dark - which might become a new metaphor for the workplace. A lovely play that will get the audience squirming. Or wriggling.
  • Clothes-Minded
    2 May. 2018
    Funny, highly original - a great show for TYA or kids, with a large, expandable cast that would give something for every actor to do, even if you have shyer kids that may not want lines. Plus, it a sweet message of inclusion that even the younger set should get.
  • While We Wait
    2 May. 2018
    Fascinating, haunting - an unconventional exploration of the limbo period so many relationships go through between breaking up and getting back together. Simpson might class it as a comedy - and it is funny - but there's enough subtext to impress Pinter, and a lead role any actor would be glad to have on her resume. This is a comedy with depth.
  • The Ring
    25 Apr. 2018
    A beautiful, touching, diamond-sharp play. It is not easy to capture a lifetime of loss - and the loss of a life - in a ten minute play. The RIng does just that, and I have tears in my eyes after reading it.
  • TEACH
    13 Apr. 2018
    I saw the Wordsmyth reading in Houston - and I strongly recommend that any theatre - or university - looking for a nuanced, emotionally engaging, theatrically daring and utterly original take on student/mentor relationships look at this one. The multiple gendered portrayal of the teacher and the student is no mere gimmick - it is an astounding theatrical leap. This is a play written without pronouns - a technical feat of playwriting used to great effect, and one that will open a whole new conversation with your audience,
  • How To Destroy An American Girl Doll
    30 Mar. 2018
    Powerful, haunting - at times darkly funny. I saw the reading of this play at the Last Frontier Theatre Conference - the last play of the week, and what a strong piece to end with. There is a line in the first scene, between two twelve year old girls, one coaching the other about bulimia. One asks: how am I supposed to feel?" after a beat, the other replies "Empty." You could hear the mass exhalation of the audience in the room when that line landed. This play has depth and resonance.
  • Surprise (a ten minute play)
    14 Feb. 2018
    I saw this in Los Angeles at Elephant Theatre - utterly brilliant, and a beautiful production. I saw it a few years later, I forget where and was once again so impressed: it's such a perfect little play - room for physical humor, to throw in a touch of slapstick in a very clever, unexpected (no pun intended) fashion. This will send the audience out with a smile on their faces.
  • Promised Lands
    7 Feb. 2018
    A fascinating premise, with a surprising twist at the end that I just did not see coming. Like the best ten minute plays, this gives us a tantalizing glimpse of a whole new world, and wisely lets its characters live out their critical moment in a way that illustrates it, could only happen in it - and yet never feels forced or expositional. This is a world close to our own, which makes it all the more frightening.
  • My Body
    7 Feb. 2018
    Clever, pointed - more relevant today than ever, this is a smartly written little gem of a play that should be considered by any theatre looking to explore the #MeToo movement on stage - and the wider implications around it. It does what theatre does best, creating a world with a distinctive view that forces us to question or own world and our own world-view, while never becoming preachy or obvious.

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