Unconditional
by Brett C Leonard

“…Sex, violence, heartache.

As it weaves together nine lives and several distinct story lines, Mr Leonard’s ambitious play circles continually around these themes, with the troublesome issue of race relations a common thread to all….

Mr Leonard writes with precision for an impressive variety of characters; the dialogue [is] scabrous, grittily naturalistic, sometimes potently pause filled, sometimes pungent with brute feeling.”Charles Isherwood, New York Times “Opening with the sight of a gagged white dude teetering on a chair, hands tied, neck in a noose, being terrorized by a gun-wielding African-American man, UNCONDITIONAL is terrific theater…anybody liking a good and nasty yarn will be absorbed… Murder, heartbreak, desolation and, yes, even some potential happiness…are among the outcomes in Leonard’s saga of big city blues.”Michael Sommers, The Star Ledger “Leonard’s play is a punch-in-the-gut drama, intent on showing the current state of the nitty-gritty of race relations, with the accent decidedly on the gritty… [Leonard’s] talent for characterization and storytelling cannot be denied, and while his vision may be bleak, bleak, bleak, it still makes for absorbing theater.”Karl Levett, BackStage This guy [Leonard] comes at you head on and with no holds barred, like no one that I know of at work presently in the theater.

He is a force to be reckoned with, a force that is needed, a kind of raw, innocent, daredevil committed to his own aesthetic

David Rabe