“The play lacks logos, pathos, and ethos and is completely devoid of catharsis. It is difficult to care about any of the characters or their hackneyed conflicts that drive drab, uninteresting plot lines...Under Elliott’s direction, the talented cast struggles to make sense of Rosenfeld’s script...Failing to address any meaningful discussion about systemic racism or any significant conversation about the 1970s race riots, ‘Downtown Race Riot’ remains a puzzling foray into the realm of the absurd.”
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"Rosenfeld chooses to dramatize this actual event indirectly...The result feels like a missed opportunity...Largely a disappointment—undercooked in the first half, then overheated at the end. Still, Rosenfeld’s script does offer some precisely observed character and period details...The seven-member cast includes several compelling performances, especially that by Chloë Sevigny...Sevigny gives a nuanced performance as a loving and neglectful mother."
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“A stumbling, hour and 40-minute, domestic drama about a morally confused Greenwich Village family… Sevigny…makes a highly credible Mary…For all its attempts at veracity, 'Downtown Race Riot' has an ersatz quality that fails to make these people and their problems real. The riot itself comes off as merely a trigger for a drama of family dysfunction; too many distractions create disunity...Dialogue that too often sounds above the pay grade of its speakers also punctures plausibility.”
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"The only thing functional, apart from the acting quality, in this dull look at a dysfunctional family and equally screwed up friends is the apartment set...We don’t actually get to see the riot, which at least would enliven the play...The focus is primarily on the mostly uninteresting characters...For all of the sincere strivings of the fine cast members, the play doesn’t pack the strength needed to keep an audience in its grip. It rambles along for 90 minutes."
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"Not a whole lot of 'Downtown Race Riot' makes sense...I’ve gone on at length about the set, primarily because it’s the most interesting part of the play; the story, inspired by an actual 1976 riot in Washington Square Park, is slack and uninvolving, with unlikable characters and questionable plot developments...Elliott can’t do much with Rosenfeld’s muddled, stilted dialogue or the inefficient acting, although it is a treat to see Oscar nominee Sevigny so up close and personal."
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"For a while it appears that Rosenfeld may be venturing into pretty daring territory—a satire on the scam artists who drain government money to the detriment of 'the deserving poor'...Soon, however, additional threads of plot are woven in...In any case, what seemed to begin as a social satire veers into melodrama. Cannily, though, Rosenfeld stops short of a grim ending...Even if it’s not wholly satisfying, there is much in Rosenfeld’s play to appreciate."
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"Making a rare appearance on stage and playing against ingenuous type, Sevigny brings understated charisma to a role that defies clichés...Only Demeo and Sovich strike a hackneyed note with wise-guy bravado that sounds like warmed-over Scorsese. But 'Downtown Race Riot' also has the measured, doom-laden pacing of 'Mean Streets' as director Scott Elliott dials up the tension to a lurid yet realistic denouement that should be enough to put an end to that ’70s feeling."
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"Sevigny’s Mary is a ragged delight...Sentiment(ality) gets a little out of hand now and then. Yet these indulgences tweaked my attention only a little; Rosenfeld’s language sweeps us along. We teeter down its consistently sharp and jagged edge as the tension slowly builds...With all its humor, the play bears a troubling message for today: Friendship and family, potent forces though they are, can’t solve the conundrum of tribalism."
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