←Recommendations of Pre-War

How I love, the human shared experience and commonality brought to life with sheer beauty. Life is so much better when we're in this together. Fantastic work!

This short, sorrowful, but ultimately hopeful play is a perfect example of the adage that less is more. Jennifer ‘O Grady effortlessly weaves a tale imbued with the history of trauma without revealing hardly any detail at all. Like Raymond Carver’s short stories, this piece makes the “audience” read between the lines and discover the anguish and humanity of two very compelling women.

The feeling of loss is palpable in this piece. O'Grady puts these two women together in a way that leaves us longing to see where this friendship goes and inspired enough to see the light at the end of our own tunnels. Would love to see this produced!

O’Grady weaves two disparate loss narratives into a poignant whole.

We did a reading of this play at 29th Street, and it really moved everyone in the room! The characters are clearly struggling and the way out is unclear as they are able to serve each other in unforseen ways. It is a wonderful piece that shows the value of sharing our experiences. Hopeful and uplifting!

Jennifer O'Grady's voice in her plays is so clear, and concise, her characters warm and immediately interesting - yet she writes with an enviable spareness, a quality that allows the silence and space around the characters to breathe, to occupy them. This play reverberates with meaning, and is so beautiful. And this title... O'Grady's poetry shining through.

Just absolutely beautiful. Breathtaking, really. O'Grady is such a rare treasure. She writes with the utmost care and honesty and tenderness. "Pre-War" is an absolutely stunning ten minute play. Deeply felt, beautifully written, fleshed-out marvelously in only a few pages. I am so deeply moved by this beautiful play. If you have not been reading O'Grady, you are missing out on beautiful language, tender stories, and characters--no, people who make you ache.