plot synopsis

It’s Christmas Eve, and Sarah and Sam are celebrating like New Yorkers: flirting over wine and debating the nature of existential suffering. Then there is knock on the door, and Sarah’s childhood friend Nate stands at the threshold. And suddenly suffering becomes a whole lot less sexy. A kaleidoscopic look at one night in New York City that changes the lives of three people forever.

select productions

— Filigree Theatre, Austin (2018) and Road Theatre, Los Angeles (2018)
— Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, 2014 (Directed by Michael Haney)
— The Playwrights Realm, NYC, 2015 (Directed by Margot Bordelon)
— 4615 Theatre Company, Washington DC (2023)

more press

“Critic’s Pick! Anna Ziegler peels away the layers of her characters to their pulsing human core in this practically perfect memory play…[that] demonstrates beyond any doubt that [she] can write with masterful emotional veracity…Vaulting back and forth in time, Ziegler’s play is both elegy and cautionary tale, imbued with poignant loss and keen regret.” — Los Angeles Times

“A Delicate Ship is a gorgeously sweet and sad three character drama.” — Theatermania

“Ziegler (who makes origami of time)…digs beneath the laughs, of which there are plenty, to plumb the pain that lurks below.” – TimeOut New York

“The timing could not be more propitious for A Delicate Ship to arrive in L.A., once again demonstrating the New York playwright’s talent for smart, lyrical dialog spoken by complex, deeply human characters facing situations likely to strike audience chords…A Delicate Ship grabbed me straight away and never let go. It moved me, it touched me, it broke my heart. What more can a reviewer wish for?” — StageSceneLA

“From playwright Anna Ziegler, “A Delicate Ship” is a three-hander that covers some pretty standard ground but in an exhilaratingly fresh and raw way.  While a love triangle, it is one whose triangulation is slightly unexpected and therein lies its brilliance. Ziegler’s dialogue is rhythmic and very much like a symphony. It becomes fast and prickly when need be and more melodic and soulful as the occasion calls. There is always a bubbling discomfort just below the surface. The actors manifest it, the audience feels it, and it makes for just really good theatre. I could not recommend this play more.” — Maryland Theatre Review

“Ms. Ziegler manipulates [time] with absolute mastery.” — Jose Solis’ Favorite Theatre of 2015, Stagebuddy

“A Delicate Ship is a darkly funny tragedy about contemporary relationships, and about how we are all the culmination of our own parents’ love stories. The Filigree Theatre’s production of this moody, moving work is a subtle, emotional exploration of the complicated nature of modern love and adulthood, and it’s well worth seeing.” — Austin360/Austin American Statesman

“[A Delicate Ship] is rewarding…Intellectually invigorating…Truly a play of the modern age.” — Cincinnati Enquirer