news | Tuesday July 5, 2022

Hot Off the Press! Still • Falling and The Code

Hot off the press! Still • Falling and The Code by Rachel Aberle has arrived! These two plays poignantly encapsulate the energy, pressure, and discontent of adolescence.

In Still • Falling Nina (or Nick, depending on the actor) has big changes to deal with: new city, new high school, new friends, new hobbies, new crushes … and new turmoil. Our protagonist must navigate feelings of anxiety, depression, and guilt in the wake of so much upheaval. From Still • Falling:

NINA
I’m trying to fill my life with Good Things – GOOD THINGS. But nothing works. And it’s like … how awful must I be … how ungrateful … to have all this good stuff in my life and still feel like … pounding heart, shallow breath, tight skin. Darkness all the time.

With a funny and relatable voice, Still • Falling speaks to mental health challenges and the unique hardships of being a teenager with grace.

In The Code, plucky junior Moira is indignant about a sexist school policy. When her protests lead to a school-wide punishment from the administration, her formerly supportive peers turn on her. Some go so far as to seek revenge. An excerpt:

SIMON
Won’t you get in trouble for this?

MOIRA
I just did an entire unit on civil disobedience in humanities. Why do they teach us this stuff if they don’t want us to learn from it?

SIMON
I’m not sure this is what they had in mind.

Abundant with ethical quandaries, The Code is a punchy, contemporary look at negotiating problematic social structures in the technological era.

Grab your copy of Still • Falling and The Code here.