The Crossword Play has tremendous potential that it may never be able to realize. The play seems to have been put up at the Midtown International Theater Festival without the direct support of author Donna Hoke which is very unusual for a festival piece. That seems problematic for a show that really needs additional development to give it wide appeal. The piece seems to have been discovered by performer Xavior Love who asked Director Janel Walton to help him prepare it for the stage. The show is not developed enough to not need the opportunities it could avail itself of with author participation.

The idea of the “Puzzlemaker” is his giving a presentation on how to make a crossword puzzle while going through trauma in his personal life. Trauma which seeps into the presentation. The Puzzlemaker continues to fill in the puzzle while sometimes acting as other characters and often using words that reflect his trauma in the puzzle. It is a very interesting idea that doesn’t quite work in its current form.

The puzzle that the Puzzlemaker is making has been commissioned by the new girlfriend of his former boyfriend. Rather than try to make this immersive, as Walton and Love do, it would be much better to add a second character who would be in the booth and suggest the words for the puzzle – words that trigger the Puzzlemaker. Whether the Stage manager is or is not the new girlfriend, should be left to the audience’s imagination, but the Stage manager becoming the puppeteer of the Puzzlemaker will bring the type of emotional devastation to the play that it demands.