History of Violence NYC Reviews and Tickets

83%

(29 Reviews)

Positive

93%

Mixed

Negative

Members say

Great acting, Intense, Ambitious, Great staging, Thought-provoking

About the Show

Director Thomas Ostermeier and Schaubühne Berlin return to St. Ann’s Warehouse with Édouard Louis’ searing autobiographical novel.

From the show:

Through the fractured recall of Édouard, his sister, police, and doctors, the “brave and ambitious” (The Guardian) History of Violence reconstructs the trauma of a desire-filled encounter turned violent. A layered retelling that is both devastating and funny, the production uncovers deeply rooted societal racism, homophobia, and rage unbridled, until all that remains is a nuanced, closely guarded memory.

Member Reviews (29)

Innovative staging, Intense, Ambitious, Absorbing

See it if ur open to an honest & personal lesson about trust, lust, insecurity, suspicion, prejudice & forgiveness centered around a harrowing crime.

Don't see it if you'll be triggered by frank depictions of sexual violence; you're uncomfortable with male nudity; you don't want to read supertitles. Read more

Forensic, Clinical, Intermittently powerful, Handsome

See it if you’re interested in multi-media staging possibilities at the end of the 2nd decade of the 21st century.

Don't see it if you’re looking for a play: Though this piece often dips into drama, it’s proudly post-dramatic. Read more

Critic Reviews (7)

"Fleeing Home, but Not Homophobia: Two plays based on the autobiographical novels of Édouard Louis put the problem of violence against gay men in a larger social context."
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4/5 Stars: "Adapted from Édouard Louis's autobiographical novel, History of Violence tells a painful personal narrative, revisiting the scene of a crime and parsing the trauma it caused. As directed by the visionary German theater-maker Thomas Ostermeier, it is a brutal and bracingly intimate act of reclamation"
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"What Makes the Man: Édouard Louis’s 'History of Violence' and 'The End of Eddy'"
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"'History of Violence' is a horror story, but a contemplative one; it features one of the most disturbing acts I have ever seen onstage, out of which it teases a multiplicity of meanings. It is a difficult, demanding, and extraordinary piece of theatre."
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"Louis' work takes a tricky turn, one I suspect a safe-space-seeking American audience might struggle with. He asks us to move past the rape, fully experience the shame…and then, more or less, to forget about it. It's an unsatisfying conclusion."
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"An examination of trauma; that in any case is the most consistently insightful aspect of the adaptation…. committed performances by the four-member cast…but the production ultimately felt more like an exercise in stagecraft rather than a pointed exploration of history or violence."
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For a previous production

"'Dr. Ride's American Beach House' and the Secret Lives of Lesbians in the 1980s: Sally Ride's historic space journey inspires four women on a St. Louis rooftop."
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