Downstate (Playwrights Horizons) NYC Reviews and Tickets
About the Show
Production Covid-19 Safety ProtocolsShow-Score Member Reviews (239)
See it if Quite possibly the most impressive play I have ever seen. Words cannot express. The cast, playwright, director - Each aspect perfection. A++
Don't see it if This cast deserves every respect from an audience. If you aren’t willing to give them your complete attention don’t go. Tests compassion.
See it if you love fresh, new theatre that challenges you and holds a mandate to consider all perspectives—filled with incredible writing & acting.
Don't see it if you’re triggered by content involving sexual abuse.
See it if IF YOU WANT TO SEE AN EXTREMELY EDGY AS WELL AS A ENTERTAINING PLAY.YOU WILL DEFINITELY GET PISSED OFF BY SOME INSENSITIVITIES AND VIEWS.THE
Don't see it if IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE SUBJECT MATTER WHICH IS ABOUT PEDOPHILES. Read more
See it if You’d like a playwright’s clarity in delineating the trap both victims and abusers create for themselves. The acting is seamless.
Don't see it if If you have a hard and fast trigger (issue) about pedophiles, be forewarned. You will be asked to think newly.
See it if One of the best plays i've ever seen. Masterfully acted.
Don't see it if no reason not to, although it is quite intense subject matter.
See it if you want to see the finest acting taking place on a New York stage in a show that will definitely make you think.
Don't see it if you're not comfortable hearing a story that includes characters who abused children. Read more
See it if you like intelligent, thought-provoking theatre. A great play performed by an excellent ensemble cast.
Don't see it if you prefer lighter fare like musicals.
See it if you wanna see a well-written play discussing about predators of children, depicting confrontation of a victim and his abuser in a group home
Don't see it if you don’t like to see a play with a strong subject matter, don’t like talk of child abuse, and don’t like to be challenged
Critic Reviews (17)
"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' is in no way a paean to pedophilia, but it prompts us to examine our vengeance, and that’s a lot to ask. It is touching in ways that make us uncomfortable to be touched...Brace yourself, and see it."
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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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