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Sender: A Play
Ike Holter’s Sender thrives on the contrast between order and chaos and the tensions that emerge as we leave childhood and adolescence behind to contend with the demands of “adulting.” In this comedy, Holter presents us with four millennial friends wrestling with these issues. While each is at a different stage of “growing up,” one of the friends has disappeared and has been presumed dead. Yet, at the beginning of the play, he returns and completely upends the balance established in his absence. This witty, foul mouthed, and razor-sharp play “What does growing up mean . . . and is it even desired in this day and age?”
Sender is one of seven plays in Holter’s Rightlynd Saga, all to be published by Northwestern University Press. Holter’s plays are set in Chicago’s fictional fifty-first ward. The other plays in the cycle are Exit Strategy, Lottery Day , Prowess , Red Rex , Rightlynd , and The Wolf at the End of the Block .
Sender is one of seven plays in Holter’s Rightlynd Saga, all to be published by Northwestern University Press. Holter’s plays are set in Chicago’s fictional fifty-first ward. The other plays in the cycle are Exit Strategy, Lottery Day , Prowess , Red Rex , Rightlynd , and The Wolf at the End of the Block .
96 pages, Paperback
Published March 15, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 17, 2025
I really had no clue where this play was going and as radical as the dialogue was I couldn’t help but laugh and keep reading.
Cassandra: “Y’ALL NEED TO SHUT THE FUCK UP AND EAT A GOD DAMN MUFFIN.” is a line i fear i will be using in my real life. I don’t know why but it stopped me in my tracks and made me laugh out loud.
It is interesting where Lynx ends up in the end and I am curious to know if it was all for Tess or if parts of it was for Jordan too.
Lynx’s free spiritedness ends up being super destructive and his cowardice leads him to faking his own death???? Also he is super manipulative of the people in his life and is unable to take any form of responsibility which in the end bites him royally in the ass. Tess is an alcoholic and has a broken heart. Jordan i fear is deeply in the closet. Cassandra is a control freak with a dream.
All of it together is a comedic recipe of a disaster.
Cassandra: “Y’ALL NEED TO SHUT THE FUCK UP AND EAT A GOD DAMN MUFFIN.” is a line i fear i will be using in my real life. I don’t know why but it stopped me in my tracks and made me laugh out loud.
It is interesting where Lynx ends up in the end and I am curious to know if it was all for Tess or if parts of it was for Jordan too.
Lynx’s free spiritedness ends up being super destructive and his cowardice leads him to faking his own death???? Also he is super manipulative of the people in his life and is unable to take any form of responsibility which in the end bites him royally in the ass. Tess is an alcoholic and has a broken heart. Jordan i fear is deeply in the closet. Cassandra is a control freak with a dream.
All of it together is a comedic recipe of a disaster.
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April 2, 2026i keep getting scene assignments with gay undertones mmmmmm
May 3, 2019
Ike Holter's play Sender is a really interesting examination of what life is like for Millenials as they cross the barrier from their late 20s and into their early 30s.
I was given a chance to read the play from the publisher, so my review is based purely on the text of the play and not on an actual performance. Furthermore, I thankful for the opportunity to review this play, but my review is not influenced by the publisher.
The premise of this story is one that is definitely new, which is great. The story begins one-year to the day after Lynx disappeared and then shows back up on the doorstep of his former girlfriend, Tess, who has spent the past year mourning his death. As you can imagine, the shock of seeing someone that was presumed dead throws Tess for an emotional loop. In addition to Tess, the play includes two other characters Jordan and his wife Cassandra. Jordan was Lynx's best friend, so he's also spent the last year in a dizzying haze, which included his getting married to Cassie. Cassie is the most "adult" of the group of four, but they are all highly fallible people.
Overall, one of the biggest problems I had with this play is that no one is likable, which isn't necessarily a huge problem in modern theater. Down the line, each person is self-centered and fairly obnoxious in her or his own way. However, by the end of the play, you at least feel that there is hope for all four as they all finally face up to the fact that growing up happens.
Stylistically, I found this play to be very similar to David Mamet. The cadence of the dialogue along with the intelligent use of profanity and sexuality was reminiscent of Mamet's Sexual Perversity in Chicago. Of course, this similarity is also telling since Holter's play also takes place in Chicago. I definitely think this play will be one that is seen on numerous college campuses across this nation.
I was given a chance to read the play from the publisher, so my review is based purely on the text of the play and not on an actual performance. Furthermore, I thankful for the opportunity to review this play, but my review is not influenced by the publisher.
The premise of this story is one that is definitely new, which is great. The story begins one-year to the day after Lynx disappeared and then shows back up on the doorstep of his former girlfriend, Tess, who has spent the past year mourning his death. As you can imagine, the shock of seeing someone that was presumed dead throws Tess for an emotional loop. In addition to Tess, the play includes two other characters Jordan and his wife Cassandra. Jordan was Lynx's best friend, so he's also spent the last year in a dizzying haze, which included his getting married to Cassie. Cassie is the most "adult" of the group of four, but they are all highly fallible people.
Overall, one of the biggest problems I had with this play is that no one is likable, which isn't necessarily a huge problem in modern theater. Down the line, each person is self-centered and fairly obnoxious in her or his own way. However, by the end of the play, you at least feel that there is hope for all four as they all finally face up to the fact that growing up happens.
Stylistically, I found this play to be very similar to David Mamet. The cadence of the dialogue along with the intelligent use of profanity and sexuality was reminiscent of Mamet's Sexual Perversity in Chicago. Of course, this similarity is also telling since Holter's play also takes place in Chicago. I definitely think this play will be one that is seen on numerous college campuses across this nation.
November 6, 2023
Playing Lynx in a scene from this for my acting class and honestly... he's probably the only one of the four characters I was invested in. Maybe I'm too young to really get what this was trying to say about millennials accepting adult responsibilities, but I just found myself rolling my eyes while reading. I'd be very curious to see a staged production.
September 30, 2025
this play was the best not a comedy comedy.
found myself laughing out loud and also being completely silent and stunned. i read a review talking about how none of the characters are likeable and i think that has some truth to it, but that they are likeable in their own way. total clusterfuck
found myself laughing out loud and also being completely silent and stunned. i read a review talking about how none of the characters are likeable and i think that has some truth to it, but that they are likeable in their own way. total clusterfuck
October 5, 2021
“. . . And if you asked me last year?
You right there, me right here, last years, to just take off just disappear, with you, if you asked?
. . . But you didn’t.
So I lived through something that tried to kill me.
Had to work for it, but I have that now.
And for a second last night I thought following you back would just be the most exciting and brave and. . . No.
Harder to stay. Harder to fight. And live this, breathe this, harder to do, like I did, harder to get over it harder to rebuild it harder to fix
so Much harder sitting here watching you
instead of you sitting here watching me.
Just you and those backpacks
and you’re scared and you’re terrified and you’re so fucking lonely, you are so fucking alone.
But that’s what you wanted. And that’s what you got.
That’s what you did.
. . . . . . . . So have fun.”
—
1/22/23 (3rd read)
Expect this one to come up a lot this semester bc I AM putting it on for project track!
—
11/2/22 (2nd read)
I want to put this on for project track
—
10/4/21 (1st read)
READING THIS OUT LOUD IN MY ACTING CLASS WAS A FUCKING TRIP I REALLY REALLY LVOED THIS PLAY it catered to many of my favorite things (friendships falling apart, insanely complicated triads with one person very clearly on the outside of it all, sharp quick dialogue) and I fucking LOVED it. Loved it. Gonna be thinking about it for a while
You right there, me right here, last years, to just take off just disappear, with you, if you asked?
. . . But you didn’t.
So I lived through something that tried to kill me.
Had to work for it, but I have that now.
And for a second last night I thought following you back would just be the most exciting and brave and. . . No.
Harder to stay. Harder to fight. And live this, breathe this, harder to do, like I did, harder to get over it harder to rebuild it harder to fix
so Much harder sitting here watching you
instead of you sitting here watching me.
Just you and those backpacks
and you’re scared and you’re terrified and you’re so fucking lonely, you are so fucking alone.
But that’s what you wanted. And that’s what you got.
That’s what you did.
. . . . . . . . So have fun.”
—
1/22/23 (3rd read)
Expect this one to come up a lot this semester bc I AM putting it on for project track!
—
11/2/22 (2nd read)
I want to put this on for project track
—
10/4/21 (1st read)
READING THIS OUT LOUD IN MY ACTING CLASS WAS A FUCKING TRIP I REALLY REALLY LVOED THIS PLAY it catered to many of my favorite things (friendships falling apart, insanely complicated triads with one person very clearly on the outside of it all, sharp quick dialogue) and I fucking LOVED it. Loved it. Gonna be thinking about it for a while
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews