The Fall to Earth

An unexpected death throws Fay and her daughter, Rachel, together for the first time in years. When a friendly police officer attempts to ease their suffering, their funny, frustrating relationship takes on a new life. Joel Drake Johnson's hilarious and harrowing play examines how the relationship between parent and child constantly changes, yet remains the same. ..". This is a richly written play, with its complexities and deceptive depths cleverly hidden by anecdotal small talk. Many authors use this approach and get lost in it. Their plays become stop-and-go affairs, but not Johnson's. No matter how small the chat, he constantly sustains the arcs of his characters and the lines of their actions. This play is only three characters and three scenes in ninety-five minutes, but there is nothing small or safe about it. Indeed, THE FALL TO EARTH is a dangerous play with terrible things to say about family fabric and the ego of parenting. It asks its three performers to take huge risks and get naked emotionally ..." -Jonathan Abarbanel, W T T W Public Radio & Windy City Times "Some people need years of therapy to get an inkling of who they are. Chicago playwright Joel Drake Johnson takes only ninety-five minutes to reveal the wounds, quirks and flaws of the three women in his fascinating new play, THE FALL TO EARTH. A compact drama with dark comedic overtones, THE FALL TO EARTH is a revelatory slice of a mother's life as she travels to her son's town after he dies ... In THE FALL TO EARTH, the mother, stays in a hotel with her estranged adult daughter. A local cop helps them through the process ... It's hard to watch two family members suffer so deeply and harm each other so consistently, without feeling sympathy and possibly a disturbing sense of familiarity ... Johnson holds up a mirror for us to feel our own aches and also to laugh at our flawed ways of coping. Dark tales such as this are a hard sell to people who prefer Happy Meal theater. But for those who like drama that drags them down dark, unfamiliar paths and into the rocky terrain of their own hearts, THE FALL TO EARTH is a rewarding trek." -Orla Swift, The News Observer (Durham)