Next of Kin

About the Play: A rain-soaked night in a New York hospital waiting room sets the stage for Next of Kin, an intimate and emotionally raw drama about an encounter between Joyce Peters, a reticent mother estranged from her daughter, and Hannah Markovitz, a professor who has come to care deeply for that same young woman. As Keira—Joyce's daughter and Hannah's student—lies in critical condition after an accident, the women are forced into unexpected proximity and frank conversation. Over the course of eighteen hours, what begins as awkward tension develops into piercing vulnerability, as they confront grief, estrangement, identity, and the quiet ache of maternal failure. Next of Kin deftly explores the complexities of chosen versus biological family, asking whether reconciliation is ever too late—or sometimes better left unspoken. This is a story about caregiving at the edges of love, and the difficult decisions that arise when past wounds come face to face with fragile hope.