Ah, the impending threat of death. What a warm and cozy feeling it is to know that each day presents new opportunities to face our own uncertain demise.

Happy Holidays!

In the fantastically macabre Failure: A Love Story, playwright Philip Dawkins manages to find the quirky, heartwarming delight in the unavoidable. The three Failure sisters, Nelly (Baize Buzan), Jenny June (Emjoy Gavino) and Gertrude (Mildred Marie Langford), are shining, independent woman who have bold futures before them. But fate has other plans, and a series of unfortunate events lands each sister in the heavyside layer within a matter of a few short months.

Oh, life: what a vexing puzzle!

On one hand, I related deeply with this tale, which is set in in the late ’20s just at the cusp of the crash — an apt allegory for the impending death of the nation. Speaking of death, my sister, a shining woman in her own right, passed in July after her series of unfortunate events (a surprise diagnosis of stage four colon cancer at age 35). While our family is still reeling from the tragedy, I’ve come to accept that while life is random and unfair, it’s also supremely precious. You simply have to make the most of it while you have it. And Dawkins, along with Seth Bockley’s inventively resourceful direction, celebrates this notion through comical, fast-paced scene work. Read the full review on The Huffington Post >