The Thin Place
by Lucas Hnath

Name: The Thin Place
Brand: Lucas Hnath
SKU: 9780573709036
Rating: 3.77 (110 reviews)

The Thin Place Book Cover — The Thin Place Cover

Highlights

Female

Male

90 mins Bare Stage/Simple Set

Synopsis

The Thin Place is the story of two women, Hilda and Linda.

Linda communicates, professionally, with the dead, who are still here, just in a different part of here, in the “thin place.”

She can make those who believe hear them, offering them peace and closure and meaning.

Originally from rural England, she’s reestablished herself in the U.S. – birthplace of spiritualism – where she has continued to build a career out of her gift.

Hilda, a keen listener and observer who’s grappling with loss, takes a great interest in Linda’s abilities.

She befriends the veteran medium, seeking answers that lie across the fragile boundary between our world and the other one.

Hnath’s play bristles with disquieting suggestion, probing the most timeless questions about reality, the impressionability of the mind, and the omnipresence of death as we float through life.

Ever gifted at taking the pulse of the world around him, Hnath matches these universals with a timely resonance, distilling collective feelings of national chaos – and our political and spiritual vulnerabilities therein – to a chillingly personal scale.

With acuity and relentless curiosity, Lucas Hnath’s play transforms the theater into an intimate séance, crafting an unnerving testament to the power of the mind.

Press Reviews

"Critic’s Pick! ★★★★ “We see what we want to see, and you’ll want to see this."
— Time Out New York

"Lucas Hnath’s cunning new ghost story, about a psychic and her client, is a twisty yarn that won’t unravel... compelling and delicious: another example, in the vein of The Christians, of Hnath’s theatrical intelligence and respect for human mystery... The Thin Place keeps on haunting because it presses against the deepest human longings not only for connection but also for exposure. We want to know what’s out there, yes, but we also want it to know us."
— The New York Times

"Lucas Hnath... has produced one of his most daring works yet with this latest effort, involving the fateful relationship between a grieving young woman and a professional medium."
— The Hollywood Reporter

"It’s a play built to seem insubstantial... the whole thing is composed from layers of ontological fog. It works as a ghost story precisely because of this impermanence... As in the best horror, awful things are hinted at but left unspoken... I can’t even really tell you confidently what happened. And that’s the elegant trick of The Thin Place. It’s a story about storytelling that defies your ability to tell a story about it."
— Vulture

"This is the sort of elusive, atmospheric piece I would urge you simply to see, unburdened by excessive description or analysis. It's a twisty tale that throws you off the scent and doubles back behind you; one wonders if Hnath wrote it like a person exploring a strange house for the first time."
— Observer