Hopscotch and the 75th is an odd collection in that they are half of a four play cycle, and I don’t know the other two, so I can’t evaluate the cycle as a whole, nor its relevance to this small town in Massachusetts in which they are set.

These two plays though are clearly related through their opposition: both are two person scenes, but Hopscotch is about two young people we think are strangers, who are actually well known to each other moving further apart; and The 75th is about two old people we think are familiar, but are probably strangers coming closer together.

Tonally the show is unexpected: we see Hopscotch first, but it is a dark and slow story that ends uncomfortably as we realize that the entire scene is a cruel, extended harassment of a young women who has already been treated poorly, while The 75th is far more comedic and light. I don’t know how I’d feel if I were in the audience watching these one after the other.

There isn’t a whole lot to say: the collection is well-written if brutal, and it holds one’s attention without ever quite distinguishing itself as a work to be revisited in a market full of similar works.