THE PLAYGROUND made its New York debut on Friday, November 6, at the United Solo Theatre Festival at Theatre Row, and the house sold out. The play also earned a five-star rave from All About Solo. So the festival organizers did something we hadn't dared hope for: they scheduled one more performance.
It's tonight, Tuesday, November 10, at 8:30 PM.
Two and a half years ago, THE PLAYGROUND premiered on Cape Cod. Since then it has played Cotuit Center for the Arts, Wellfleet Preservation Hall, the Barn at Cape Rep Theatre, Barnstable Comedy Club, and The Art House in Provincetown. Bringing it to 42nd Street, to the city where Joan's story takes place, has been a long-held dream for all of us at Helltown Players.
Five stars from All About Solo…
Grayson Sebert reviewed the opening performance for All About Solo and gave it five out of five stars.
"I am mesmerized by the sheer brilliance of Dalglish's writing and Botsford's ability to bring it all to life."
"Botsford's performance was out-of-this-world. Truly, she was a jewel and I was hooked at the edge of my seat."
"Compelling, fiercely gripping, intensely emotive, and without a doubt disturbing, in the best of ways."
The review also recognizes what the play is reaching for: class and racial divides, the pressures on women who step away from their careers for motherhood, and the fear facing immigrants under ICE.
About the play…
When Joan's mathematician husband takes a job at a hedge fund in New York, she gives up her tenure-track position at Berkeley, packs up their four-year-old son and follows him to the Upper East Side. What she finds there is a world of wealth, privilege and seductive compromise, and a decision that will change the course of her life and the lives of everyone around her.
Told entirely from Joan's point of view, THE PLAYGROUND weaves memory, regret and dark humor into a look at integrity, ambition, and the human cost of looking the other way. Anna Botsford is onstage for the whole play, surrounded by 17 characters brought to life in projected video and recorded voices. It is a New York play about privilege, immigration and ICE, and about the question at its heart: what do we think we deserve?
One last chance November 10 at 8:30pm…
November 10 is the last New York performance currently scheduled
The theater is intimate, and the first show sold out before opening night.
Know someone in New York?
Send them this post. Word of mouth sold out the first show, and it can fill the second one too.
Make a night of it!
Theatre Row is minutes from Times Square and surrounded by restaurants, so come for dinner and stay for Joan.
See you on 42nd Street!
THE PLAYGROUND
A one-woman play written and directed by Jim Dalglish
Starring Anna Botsford
Tuesday, November 10, 2026 at 8:30 PM
Theatre Row
410 W. 42nd St., New York
United Solo Theatre Festival
#ThePlayground #UnitedSolo #TheatreRow #OffBroadway.
