Visions of September nights swell in my brain: stage lights warm and inviting; theaters teem with darkened audiences, echoing enamored with the allure of spontaneity. Where celebrated artists, players, directors, and writers return home. Where one goes to practice utopia and sit with disaster. Where one may be with the mystery of life itself, and participate in the rite of theatrical ritual.
From the mid-September night blows a westward wind bound for the Hudson, warm and balmy as I exited the basement of Soho Playhouse. Hard to Say, a deeply personal and hilarious comedy show about living with chronic pain makes a splash this fall. Brought to the stage by Kyle Ayers, the most forgiving lobotomy patient that ever was, is informing, captivating and effusive. Hard to Say explores Ayers’ lived experience with Trigeminal Neuralgia, a rare, electrifyingly painful brain nerve disorder that took over Ayers’ life for years while he searched for relief, escape, and resolution.
Ayers’ described nights spent with his face to the cold tile of the kitchen floor, where the pain was quieted just enough to stomach sleep. For many years, the pain is described as “debilitating, relentless,” searching some kind of dead wire end to the electric flood of his mind.
Regularly misdiagnosed following its on set, Ayers’ performs his experience of Trigeminal Neuralgia through bold visual body gore, hyper realistic telling, all while giving a lesson in neuroscience. Ayers selected specific audience members to engage in a form of social attunement, asking them to blow horns which were handed out at the beginning of the show, ensuring any one moment would not become too “heavy.” Attuned and articulated, Ayers exudes a devoted presence through his set, evolving all kinds of hard to reach consciousness.
In Ayers’ words, the unscripted Hard to Say is his most sincere performance yet, engaging the audience in a social conversation about what it’s like to live with severe chronic pain and want stay alive. Hard to Say, received Edinburgh Fringe Festival Best Newcomer Award Nomination in 2024. The show laughs like an improv game and plays like a comedic drama monologue. Hard to Say had its New York debut at Soho Playhouse on Sept. 4 and ran through Sept. 14th, 2025.
Ayers recalls the email he received from a team of brain surgeons soliciting him for brain surgery. At a bitter wits end he decided to take them up on it. Risks and all, Ayers faced the possibility of death many times over, leading to an evolved presence and connected stage performance as a result. The brain surgery Ayers received was successful… to a point, leaving Ayers with more questions than answers. Hard to Say is a story of looking up and off the page. A story of pain turning seconds to days, months to years, and learning how to extend time through presence. I got to sit down with Kyle Ayers following the show. We unpacked his comedic technique and story telling as mechanisms of action in his healing process, as well as the importance of heathy relationships and psychological support. Read the full interview and discussion with Kyle Ayers on Psyche Rosa’s Substack later this month.
Feat: Downtown Artists do Uptown Things
The Phalanstery opened its latest show on September 20th with a reception from 5–9 PM, celebrating the organizations spirited mythic roots. Curated by Mehdi Matin, the exhibit features Darryl LaVare, Scott Covert, Dietmar Busse, Caroline Snow, Ry Fyan, Agathe Snow, and Clayton Patterson. The constellation of group works is an interstellar love letter to the late founder, Richard O Tyler, Lower East Side Icon, originator and visionary of The Phalanstery.
A sensibility of discussion between each work in the show highlights the visual language of Richard O Tyler and the Lower East Side in collaboration. These culminated works commune with Richard O Tyler’s visual world, specifically the pieces he made while at the original Phalanstery on E 4th Street from 1954 to 1983, where he spent the last moments of his physical life. The Phalanstery continues to steward the mystic and abundant art collection of Richard O Tyler and Dorothea Baer, as well as showcase contemporary artists from all over New York and the world.
The Phalanstery carries on traditions of collage, pastiche, and unity of the downtown continuum from early pioneers of the avant garde. The Phalanstery will host the show through Oct. 18th, 2025, by appointment. For catalog of works and appointments, email Phalanstery Director at [email protected].
Does Unconditional Love Exist and What Does It F*ck Like?
For the second time this September, I entered the hallow theatre halls of Soho Playhouse, this time for Ali Keller’s (Un)conditional. Keller, a playwright, producer, dramaturg, as well as the recipient of the 2024 Lighthouse Award for (un)Conditional, directed by Ivey Lowe, explores what one is willing to risk, lose, indulge, desire and deny, for sake of love.
Conditional bonds and the fragility of unresolved relational trauma is present throughout the play as characters unravel desires at a psychodynamic pace, as personal truths and pathology emerge within family systems. How far will one go to have their love language spoken, even if it ultimately means going separate ways? What will one do to meet them there? What happens when love is not enough?
(Un)conditional is slow burn yet well paced and confronting. Tear jerk, spot on, Each monologue takes audience members into deeper inquiry of character, history, and motive. Creative set changes take audiences from the doll department aisle of Target to one couple’s living room, into their purple lit bedroom, representative auric color, evoking the symbolic illumination and challenge notions of relational convention.
Showing now at Soho Playhouse through October 26th, 2025. Tickets begin at $40, and can be purchased on their website.
Recent and Upcoming Downtown Happenings
This year, The Arbons Arts Center celebrates fifty years of community arts and service on the Lower East Side, centering the power of presence as a core theme this season. As a foundational program of Henry Street Settlement, Abrons Arts Center is focused on performance, art education, and residency opportunities for artists across New York.
This year, Arbons Arts Center will celebrate its 50th year at the Fall Festival, held on Saturday, October 25th, 2025 from 12 to 4 p.m. at 466 Grand Street. Family friendly, designed for all ages; There will be music, dancing, and art activations honoring the Centers heritage. The event is free to all with registration via their website.
For all other theatrical happening on the downtown continuum, check out the websites of La MaMa, Cherry Lane Theatre, Gene Frankel Theatre, Theatre for the New City, and HERE for more
October Productions!
Prose To Go
September is over and the girls are summer time sad. The city is a madhouse. The players are booked, experiments glowing, radium radiant. Beakers of lithium and stage serum spill over, out upon audience. Magnetic conceptual world, theory and hunch. Churn compounds toward narrative. Affirm preexisting heinous and paranoid beliefs about boys and hard boiled eggs. Love stories that aren’t Cinderella, but before the flood. The living thread, magic flash iris across sky shoot star a Tinker bell down, land on Peter Pan; a lost boy howl. Explode placenta, birth canal of Lower East side underground. Nights spent in the avant garden…
The theater awaits!
