Lucy Kaminsky

Dwelling surreally on death and disfigurement, this mesmerizing ensemble piece is tumid with ambiguities, like the eeriest of dreams. Gauzily atmospheric, Aaron Schimberg’s strange vignettes twitch with marionette-like characters, whose singsong eccentricities jerk this coarse-grained world to life.

Young, struggling playwright and theater director, Victor, and his girlfriend Mary are expecting their first child. As Mary’s father keeps buying them things they could never afford, Victor’s sense of entrapment grows.

Intuiting the state of the nation, Courtney Stephens and Callie Hernandez refract an America of post-truth politics, conspiracies, and quack science through a personal prism of grief. Holding a candle for more benign eccentrics, dreamers, and dads, this one-of-a-kind wonder whirs with invention.