An ailing mother and her teenaged son flee Illinois and a crumbling marriage for the relative calm and safety of a midtown Manhattan hotel. Mom holds tickets to a popular musical about love among bohemians. Her son isn't interested, so Mom takes the kindly cabdriver instead, while the boy entertains a visitor from down the hall, an enigmatic, potentially dangerous young woman.

Kindness is a play about the possibility for sympathy in a harsh world and the meaning of mercy in the face of devastating circumstances.

Compelling. A well-crafted mini-thriller, which keeps you in suspense until the final blackout.

Joe Dziemianowics New York Daily News

Rapp has raised some provocative questions about the prickly mother/son relationship he has drawn in such detail.

Marilyn Stasio Variety

Pungent, vivid...Rapp finds a gentle approach to his characters' physical and emotional pain without turning sentimental. His playful side is on display too.' [Four stars]

Diane Snyder Time Out New York

Adam Rapp can write dense, tense, funny dialogue.

Charles Isherwood The New York Times

Premiere Production: Kindness premiered at Playwrights Horizons, New York City in 2008 under the direction of Adam Rapp.