Spend Rare Disease Day in community with a reading of Fail Risk. Tickets are pay what you can so that cost is not a barrier to the community, with suggested donations at $5, $17, and $30 price points. The performance will have a live and virtual component in order to be accessible to the chronic and rare disease community. 

Synopsis

Fail Risk is a bold, unflinching new play about love, chronic illness, and survival. Following Peyton and Alex through the first five years of their marriage and the onset of a mysterious illness, it confronts guilt, burnout, and medical trauma while rejecting the “love conquers all” cliché. Centering the messy realities of illness, the play highlights the importance of trauma-informed medical care and the vital role of those who truly “get it” in surviving chronic illness.

Content Warning

Mature content, strong language, sexual themes, sexual trauma related to illness or disability, depictions of masturbation, depictions of sexual situations when consent cannot be given or revoked due to medical incapacity, fatphobia in medicine, medical trauma, gaslighting, and suicidal ideation.

Cast & Crew

Project History

Ali Hardy began writing Fail Risk in 2017 as a way to cope while going through treatment for a rare autoimmune disease.

In 2020, one scene from the full length version was isolated and reformatted into a short, 25 minute play of it’s own taking place on Zoom, mimicking a FaceTime call between the two lead characters. The play was produced by Reckless Theatrics, along with the virtual edition of Grace & Dennis, May 21, 22, 28, and 29 in 2021. There was a talk back following the performance, where the audience was invited to share feedback that would benefit the full length verson.

Fail Risk is now a full-length play on its 6th draft, and will be recieving a staged reading on February 28, 2026 (Rare Disease Day) at Court Square Theater. The reading will also be live-streamed for the chronically ill audience.

Virtual Edition

The virtual edition of Fail Risk premiered on May 21, 2021. In this edition of Fail Risk, we follow Peyton and Alex as they try to reintroduce intimacy into their relationship after Peyton has a mini stroke during sex.

The production featured Ali Hardy as Peyton and Dante Guilliano as Alex, with Samantha Marie Nieves as the Director and Kathleeen Hefferon as the Intimacy Choreographer.

This project is made possible, in part, with public funds from the Queens Art Fund, a re-grant program supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the city council and administered by New York Foundation for the Arts.