When a soldier returns from war carrying the ghosts of their tour, they’re faced with a sobering decision: Address their alarming PTSD with virtual reality therapy, or risk losing access to their family forever. This electric, vivid, one-person drama explores the power of healing and finding strength in vulnerability.
Based on interviews with Veterans, consultations with VR and PTSD specialists, and the playwright Jacqueline Goldfinger's own familial experience, Backwards Forwards Back is a heartbreaking and hopeful exploration of how the trauma of PTSD ripples through soldiers, their families, and their communities - a chain of events that shatters relationships and upends lives.
Winner: Susan Glaspell Playwriting Prize
Winner: Best One-Person Play at Off-Broadway’s United Solo Festival
"Powerful” and “Compelling” -Sarasota Magazine
Critic’s Choice! 5 Stars “A gripping solo show that dives into the emotional toll of war and the struggle to heal… The play doesn't offer easy answers or a miracle cure; instead, it presents an honest look at the complexities of PTSD and the difficult path to reintegration.” -AllAboutSolo
“Goldfinger’s dialog is razor-sharp; her storytelling is laser-focused.” -The Observer
“Goldfinger's play takes a gritty, no-holds-barred look at perhaps the darkest element of warfare—its propensity to shatter the humanity of its participants… ‘Backward Forwards Back’ is the kind of play that every policymaker who contributes to decisions on the use of force should be made to watch, as it reminds us, in the words of Ernest Hemingway, to ‘never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.’" -Bradenton Times
“Riveting… That struggle [returning from war] is rarely conveyed as viscerally as it is in ‘Backwards Forwards Back’… It also contains a message of hope - that there can be a way back from trauma and, as the Soldier can finally concede, it’s ‘a dance worth doing.’” -The Gabber
"Perhaps only military veterans and those closest to them can fully comprehend how the horrors of war lead to post traumatic stress disorder and the emotional roller coaster that follows when they return home…playwright Jacqueline Goldfinger does more than any stage work I can recall to give the rest of us a sense of how seemingly simple things in our world can trigger episodes and potentially dangerous reactions.” -Sarasota Union-Tribune
“Beautiful…Evocative…Devastating…Compassionate.” -KC Arts
“Wildly kinetic… tour de force…The idea that these dehumanized digital tactics might be the best hope of survival for millions of Americans is portrayed with measured, thoughtful consideration, while the human cost implied tips the scales in an undeniable direction.” -The Pitch KC
