“I think addiction is the best way to describe being stuck in a sin,” explains Cult of Love author Leslye Headland, “because I don't see sin as like a transgression. I see sin as something that you are living, that you are stuck in.” The playwright recently made her Broadway debut with this sharp comedy, the final script in her Seven Deadly Plays series.

Cult of Love sucks audiences into a Christmas gathering from hell. The adult children of the Dahl family gather at their parents home for holiday celebrations, folk songs, and the airing of grievances. The playwright admits she was inspired by aspects of her own life, but the family is entirely fictional. “It's taking my family, and extended family, and putting them in a blender,” Headland tells Gold Derby, “creating characters that are important for the play rather than shoehorning the play into my own experience.”

Explosive...