The beautiful writing by Ramsburg makes every moment fresh and new and marks a tense standoff between mother and daughter. The language flows like a crystal stream and forces us, the audience, into the fragmented life of Amelia who has a job selling memberships to a charity that rescues children in overseas countries and watches television to soothe the scars she perceives as caused by her mother and the rest of humanity. These are the words of a master playwright: specific, detailed, wrapped in imagery and covered in lush reality. Let us be honest. There are raw and naked scars here. But they are presented with such nobility and grace that we genuinely understand their beginnings and sincerely hope for their ends.
The O'Neill Theater Conference Semi-Finalist is a masterwork moving and crisscrossing the four characters into and out of each other's prism and purpose like good soldiers. The hug in the title refers to the human warmth and love that Amelia has been desperately yearning for since her childhood when she attended foster home after foster home, and is contemplating sharing with Ben, a co-worker who has shown great interest in her. Her journey to that acceptance, self-love and understanding is brilliantly chronicled by Ramsburg..."
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