←Recommendations of FRIENDS WITH GUNS

Just saw A Short Leap's production of Friends with Guns, and it was hilarious, surprising, very real, and as always Stephanie nails the social dynamics in a play that's smartly comic, with characters who are so very familiar and devastating precisely because they are so familiar. And it's also a very real portrayal of early motherhood.

Just got to direct this play. That characters are so real and the discussions are so relevant to right now. I found myself arguing back at the characters.

In the playwright's note, Walker writes that she is "tired of the outrage." This play remarkably reflects that point of view. It's easy to write an anti or pro-gun screed that masquerades as a play. This play isn't that. It provides no easy answers. No comfort. No manufactured outrage. What it does provide is real characters. With their points of view. And their flaws that go deeper than the surface issue. Are guns the problem? Walker doesn't claim to have that answer in her work. Instead, she asks questions, and asks us to ask questions. What a challenging work!

Great skill. Friends with Guns is so illuminating. The discomfort that unfolds is so masterfully crafted. A play I'd love to see produced. I am in awe. It is the honesty that does it for me. A rich and authentic experience.

Such a great and topical play! Love the ways that violence and weapons are portrayed and explored. There are definitely arguments on both sides and I enjoyed the journey, especially in today's society. People scare me way more than any weapon, especially people like Josh.

Thoroughly enjoyed this work. Challenges the audience/reader along with finding ways to make you laugh in the discomfort of conflict. A great scene study piece for acting students!

A spectacular explosion of everything you think you know about one of the most contentious issues in our country that couldn't be more brilliantly handled! Absolutely fantastic.

Stephanie Alison Walker pushes all the buttons in our head that make us recoil when we meet people who disagree with us about firearms in America. This brilliant play hits so hard because it’s not about the policy. It’s about the people. Read it!

Friends With Guns achieves the near impossible.It's a play about a huge, timely, and contentious issue that makes you forget you're watching an Issue Play. Walker's strength lies in telling her story in the most microcosmic and human way possible. She focuses on her characters, not the issue. She gives us four rich, complicated, and completely relatable characters, that at first you think you know, but who eventually reveal themselves to be not so easily pegged. The only thing more surprising than the ending was the fact that I walked away from this questioning my own beliefs.

An expertly crafted exploration into a complicated issue. Never felt overdramatic, but rather this plays leans into the truth on both sides of the debate regarding gun violence, the right to protect one’s self, and other issues that I won’t list out of potential SPOILERS. What an ending. One of the best endings to a play I’ve read in a while. A perfect play for the moment we are in now, where we constantly must engage with the question: What is the Right to Life?

Produce this play!!!