←Recommendations of SHIP

Mr. Williams has written a fascinating play on what it means to exist on the fringes of society. He has a wonderful ear for dialogue and a great sense of that elusive thing called comic timing. Well done!

The world of SHIP is authentic and familiar with deeply moving characters who are as complex and flawed as they are endearing and hilarious. You're rooting for everyone to succeed in the hands of a playwright who definitely knows what he's doing.

Sharp, witty, with a huge heart and characters that you will fall in love with, this playwright has carved a comedic suburban jewel out of the rough stone of lower middle class strip mall life. If you’re a fan of films like SLACKER, CLERKS, MALLRATS, and SLUMS OF BEVERLY HILLS - or you just enjoy great storytelling with laughs - this play is for you.

Nothing beats well-written slice of life comedies featuring ordinary people in pretty extraordinary situations and Doug Williams kills it with this play. A play both hysterical and heartbreaking that looks at human resilience and the capability of our bodies to do wonderful things.

SHIP is totally wonderful - masterfully treading the knife's-edge between hilarity and tragedy. Douglas' characters are incredibly witty, but likewise incredibly rich and three-dimensional: accordingly, you're with them the whole way through, celebrating their triumphs and mourning at their mistakes. His dialogue and structure are effortless and this allows the story unfold quite naturally (when it could've been anything but). This play is a dramaturgical "tight ship". (Lame, but I couldn't resist.)

To me the best comedies explore the personal tragedies. In SHIP by Douglas Williams you will read an elegant yet thoroughly modern comedy with some of the most realistic dialogue you'll read anywhere. Williams gives us three quirky and complex characters who take personal journeys and grow not necessarily toward vanquishing, their demons but toward a more realistic making peace with past mistakes and growing stronger and more subtle over a more radical transformation. Don't let this philosophizing fool you, though. SHIP is a really funny play that's gonna leave you in stitches.

This play was a SEMIFINALIST for the 2017-2018 In-Progress New Play Reading Series at Unicorn Theatre in Kansas City, Missouri. It is our pleasure to support SHIP.

I love this play so much. It's hilarious, weird, heartbreaking, subtle, and completely subverts your expectations. If you're looking for a play about the dangers and heartbreaks of strange obsessions, you found the right play.