I'm Gonna Pray for You So Hard: A Play

by Halley Feiffer

Ella is a precocious and fiercely competitive actress whose aims in life are making her famous playwright father proud―and becoming famous herself. In the aftermath of a boozy, drug-fueled evening when Ella’s father is particularly hurtful, she flings herself into the arms of a young director with whom she begins to collaborate on a one-woman show . . . about her father. Halley Feiffer’s dark, probing, and much-anticipated new play is a fierce, funny, and gloves-off take on the eternal struggles of parents and children to find common ground.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Theatre

128 pages, Paperback

First published December 30, 2014

Reviews

[Manny]

Then I found something else to do
I wrote a play about you
As the French might say
Une pièce à clef
I spend an hour throwing poo
Until it's all over you
And it made me some money too
So put what you like in your review
Daddy, Daddy you bastard, I'm through

(With apologies to Sylvia Plath)

[Doug]

Halley Feiffer, a promising young actress/playwright, is the daughter of famous curmudgeonly Jewish playwright Jules Feiffer. Her play concerns a promising young actress/playwright whose father is a famous curmudgeonly Jewish playwright. Hmmm.... I guess, in this case at least, it pays to write what you know. A tour de force for two top actors, I'm sure this plays like gangbusters, but it's still pretty exciting just on the page.

[Alexis]

This is something that would probably be incredible to see, but at the same time it was horrifying to read. This is meant to be seen performed by two incredible actors--on the page it is almost traumatizing?
This father daughter relationship is FUCKed up and I get that's the point but whew. I also get Feiffer's criticism of recycled masturbatory theater but isn't this... that? to an extent?
At the same time
there is something very interesting about giving a platform to an old white guy with a chip on his shoulder who won't stop going on an on about the good ole days, about what REAL art is and the whole time we're hoping he chokes... and then he does? Something about a daughter who is desperate for the approval of her abusive famous father. About their very close on the borderline incestuous relationship. About seeing that relationship blow up, but not soon enough to prevent her from becoming him. But rather than forgive him in his desperate final moments she gives him exactly what we (I) was hoping she'd give him earlier on? And it's gross and horrible and wrong but doesn't he deserve it? And it's okay because it's not real, it's a play! Did it even happen at all or was it just part of the play within the play? Even more so not real and therefore okay?

That's theater, baby!

[Emma Rund]

A weird wild ride! Very very dark father-daughter relationship but I loved the parallels between scene 1 and scene 2

[LYS.]

“I take the bullshit people feed me and I make it my own.” —David

the dialogue is quick-paced and punchy and the father-daughter dynamic and subsequent parallels are gutting but i wasn’t really a huge fan in general? idk

[Lydia Newman]

Insane and awesome

[Kailey]

ladies, your worst nightmare isn’t turning into your mother—it’s turning into your father

[Lenny]

Wow. Visceral, hard-hitting and ultimately quite moving. Feiffer explores the torrid relationship between a very successful, drug-fueled, hard-drinking father playwright and his actor daughter. He comes off as fairly horrid, encouraging his daughter's drug use and drinking, constantly cutting her down and then building her way up. His manipulative ways are destructive . . . and yet . . . they lead her to success as an artist and playwright. But there is a great price to pay. Searing and thoughtful. I'd love to see this performed. When I reach the right age I'd love to play the father.

[Matthew]

Format: Kindle
Review: Read this for my play reading group. It was a last minute change because we didn't have enough people show up for the play we originally chose. This play definitely takes you for a ride. Super fucked up and also really hard to put down. Kind of annoying to read because the repetition of the same line over and over gets old but I know if it were a fully rehearsed show, it would have been justified. I went on youtube and watched an interview with the playwright and she's right, there aren't many father/daughter plays.

[Sissy]

Interesting. It does what the characters say to do. It isn’t safe. Some of the language I feel is unnecessary, like it doesn’t really “add” to the concept. Some of it resonated pretty hard with me, in good ways and bad, which seems to be the point. Im neither here for it nor against it.

[Brooke Cousins]

lowkey thought the big twist was going to be that he was faking the effects of a stroke because he was so evil...that would have been interesting and in-character. some of the parallels between the first and second scenes were cool, but there were soooo many of them that it just got heavy-handed.

[Glynnis]

Oof!

[Hope]

Woof

[Noa Shapiro]

I really liked the structure of it, but I found it a little outdated and Ella was not a very interesting character. Definitely interested in her other work but I think I’ll leave this one.

[shinji]

:(

[Newly Wardell]

I didnt hate it. I dont understand the appeal of recreational drug use with a parent but to each their own. I wanted it to be really great and it's not.

[Tommy Boyce]

I’m gonna be constructive here, you should k*ll yourself

[Rachel Gorman]

4.5 stars

[Isabelle]

Wasn't sure how to take in their relationship, but ouch, that second scene hit like a truck.

[Jessica Pearson]

“Did this play move me?” “Did I relate to it?” “Did some part of me wish I hadn’t related to it?” These are the kinds of questions that I want my audience to—”

[Nate Oaks]

I fucked with this quite heavily. I love weird experimental shit like this. The parallels were amazing . I was genuinely shocked a few times. So cool I also read this as work!

[Erica]

When David comes back in Scene 2... I fucking l o s t it. The more I've thought about this, the more I'm obsessed with it.

[Kat]

Amazing play.

[Glenn Griffin]

Incredible dialogue.

[Fred]

Scabrous!