FIVE SESSIONS… A WAR IN THERAPY Will Come to the Chain Theatre

Barrio Independent Productions has announced its upcoming production of “FIVE SESSIONS…A War in Therapy”–, a new play by the playwright, educator, and activist Jaime Estades. Set in present-day New York City, this intense psychological drama confronts audiences with urgent questions about systemic injustice, and the limits of institutional care. Performances run May 22-31.

 “FIVE SESSIONS…A War in Therapy”– is not a conventional play—it is a theatrical confrontation. Over the course of five charged therapy sessions, the audience is drawn into a confined space where two individuals collide: a young, Ivy-League Colleges–trained therapist armed with clinical tools and good intentions but non-experiential, and a Latino building superintendent, labor organizer, and a man on the edge, shaped by grief, exploitation, and systemic neglect.

What begins as a standard therapeutic encounter quickly unravels into a volatile exchange where power, race, class, and survival take center stage. The therapy room transforms into a pressure chamber—language becomes action, silence becomes threat, and the boundaries between healing and harm blur dangerously.

With unflinching honesty, the play interrogates the effectiveness of therapy in a society where structural inequities remain unaddressed. The play poses a provocative and unsettling question: Can individual healing exist without collective justice?

The puertorrican Playwright Jaime Estades brings a unique and powerful perspective to the stage drawing from a background in social policy, advocacy, and clinical education—including teaching at Columbia University and previously at NYU—Estades infuses the work with lived experience and intellectual rigor.

Directed by acclaimed theater artist Edward Torres, whose credits include productions of works by Pulitzer Prize winner Quiara Alegría Hudes and collaborations with The Public Theater's Mobile Shakespeare Unit. Featuring a cast of accomplished professional actors, including Iván Goris, Belange Rodríguez, Bill Blechinberg and Kyle Glenn “FIVE SESSIONS…A War in Therapy” the performances are as visceral as they are thought-provoking. Bringing together a distinguished director and outstanding cast members, the production promises an engaging and emotionally charged theatrical experience.