Downstate (Playwrights Horizons) NYC Reviews and Tickets

88%

(134 Reviews)

Positive

96%

Mixed

Negative

Members say

Great acting, Absorbing, Great writing, Thought-provoking, Intense

About the Show

A victim of abuse confronts his abuser, living out his days in a group home, after serving jailtime.

At a registered address in downstate Illinois, four men convicted of sex crimes share a group home where they spend their time after being released from incarceration.

When a man shows up to confront his childhood abuser, the lines between justice and retribution begin to blur. This thrilling, provocative new play from Pulitzer Prize winner Bruce Norris puts a focus on the limitations of empathy and forgiveness.

Bruce Norris reunites with director Pam McKinnon to bring the Steppenwolf Theatre Company and National Theatre production of Downstate to the New York stage.

Member Reviews (134)

Intelligent, Riveting, Great acting, Great writing, Intense

See it if You like smart topical plays that don’t talk down to you but quite the opposite, may show you sides to a topic that you’ve never considered.

Don't see it if You don’t like to be challenged. If you want a fluffy piece of theatre that doesn’t make you uncomfortable in any way or make you think.

Edgy, Absorbing, Great acting, Great writing, Intense

See it if Well written dealing with abuser living in a group home.

Don't see it if strong subject matter sexual abuse, suicide, not for everyone.

Thought-provoking, Disturbing, Great staging, Great writing, Great acting

See it if A brilliant play that takes place in a halfway house for sex offenders; guilt, accountability, self-deception, legal system failures

Don't see it if Triggered by graphic descriptions of sexual acts involving minors. Read more

Uncomfortable

See it if What is justice in discussions of childhood sexual abuse, rape, love with minors from 4 perpetrators after incarceration and 1 survivor.

Don't see it if Discomfort with focus on perspectives of perpetrators (some not feeling guilt) over flailing one survivor. Some dismissal of survivor. Read more

Confusing, Intense, Disappointing

See it if you want play about four men in halfway house for sexual abuse to children. Author sympathetic to them but not to the one victim who appears

Don't see it if pedophilia is not “your thing”. Lots of cursing & yelling. Man who was sexually abused as child shows up to confront abuser. Very graphic. Read more

Fascinating characters, Phenomenal acting, Wonderful script, Ambitious, Absorbing

See it if you like wonderful acting, direction, script, character development & content that challenges one's perceptions of evil people.

Don't see it if you desire light entertainment and not a serious confrontational play that deals realistically with degenerate behavior of characters.

Riveting, Powerful, Intense

See it if you like gripping, smart and complex plays that challenge your perceived notions on difficult themes with smart dialog and a great ensemble

Don't see it if you're having a hard time with idea of presenting both sexual offenders and their victims as human beings,with their personalities and flaws

Thought-provoking, Profound, Great writing, Great direction, Great acting

See it if you want to see a great play about child abuse and the abusers living out their lives in a group home.

Don't see it if you don't want to see a drama about child abuse.

Critic Reviews (16)

"Bruce Norris’s “Downstate” is the kind of play that takes over your body gradually. Its tension seeps into your limbs, settles tautly in your solar plexus and does not leave. Out on the street after the performance, your every synapse remains on high alert."
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" 'Downstate' wants to make you sit in discomfort as long as possible and see what lies on the other side."
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"Engaged viewers may find themselves feeling that their moral compass has gone haywire...it’s not the violent denouement that is likely to remain with you, but the infinite shades of gray that Mr. Norris infuses into the play."
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" 'Downstate' is a difficult play about difficult subject matter...but the play seeks to do something different, more complicated and morally challenging."
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"Take a deep breath and try to ruminate calmly on the position playwright Bruce Norris takes in his scintillating new play...'Downstate' is proof positive that you can love a play that turns you inside out."
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"Norris has written a complex and compassionate play, but not a preachy or judgmental one. The audience is never pushed to forgive or condemn, but rather to evaluate."
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"It powerfully reclaims the stage as a home for dangerous ideas, a place where the thoughts we would rather ignore confront us — not with startling moral clarity, but sublime doubt."
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Even the most hair-raising of [Norris’] works pales in comparison to Downstate. Taking direct and deadly aim at one of society's bedrock pieties, he builds his latest drama around the residents of a group home for sex offenders, a gambit certain to ride the audience's nerves to the breaking point. Then he surrounds this household of parolees with interlopers who, if anything, may be even less sympathetic. It's a blackly comic tour of humanity's fallen state, posing questions likely to keep you sleep-deprived. And yet, despite its grotesque subject and appalling cast of characters, it is savagely, uncompromisingly alive.
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Trailer

Creative team