This Flat Earth NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (237)
See it if Loved this show. Acting was good. It makes you think about the ripple effect of crimes.
Don't see it if There is no reason not to see this show!
See it if you want to be moved by looking at our insane world (school shootings/social inequality) through the eyes of young people.
Don't see it if do not like compelling theater that deals with real issues and makes you laugh, think and feel.
See it if You like well acted, powerful performances around lives impacted by a senseless tragedy that is sadly all too common. Highly recommended.
Don't see it if You prefer a light hearted play. This show is intense and extremely well acted. Read more
See it if you like plays that tackle contemporary issues. This play deals with gun control and school shootings, and handles it very well
Don't see it if you want a light-hearted, fun, family play or anything like that.
See it if you wonder how the next generation is going to grow up in an era of violence and close-to-home tragedies. It's a heartbreaking story.
Don't see it if you are triggered or have some kind of PTSD from violence.
See it if you’d be interested in a riveting drama about the aftermath of an all-too familiar tragedy.
Don't see it if you’re seeking a frivolous and light-hearted theater experience.
See it if you love a good play with serious issues, quirky characters and is about family and community.
Don't see it if you need logical characters and aren't willing to go for the feel versus straight facts. I strongly liked this one and will remember it.
See it if you like the clever writing of Lindsey Ferrentino. I had high expectations because everything she writes is gold and she delivered but..
Don't see it if gun control is a sensitive topic for you Read more
Critic Reviews (24)
"Very sincere and equally ungainly new drama. There is no denying the urgency of this work...Ferrentino is bravely attempting to contextualize 21st-century horrors within the sort of existential framework in which Thornton Wilder and Edward Albee specialized...The ambitious, potentially heart-stirring elements are all in place here. Yet they have been assembled with a disjointedness that taxes our belief. And the performances, perhaps inevitably, lack emotional continuity."
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"Despite a gutsy performance from the talented teenage lead, Ella Kennedy Davis, and despite the intermittent 'Mmm's of significance that rippled through the audience, I left Ferrentino’s play dry-eyed and weirdly restless...For a play that orbits a school shooting, 'This Flat Earth' is almost aggressively apolitical...I have no idea what Ferrentino has to say about our country’s repeated waves of armed violence."
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"The unconvincing 'This Flat Earth' at Playwrights Horizons proves that it’s actually not all in the timing...The show also lacks urgency and authenticity and, as directed by Rebecca Taichman, uniformly believable performances...Ferrentino, to her credit, is drawn to stories of people who are complicated. Too bad in this case she sabotages her own characters, who collapse into contrived and cliched behaviors."
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"Despite noble intentions and sensitivity, 'This Flat Earth' proves an awkwardly written and thoroughly unconvincing drama that squanders the sadly ongoing timeliness of its tragic subject matter...For long stretches, 'This Flat Earth' meanders aimlessly in search of something resembling a plot. That would matter less if the dialogue were more incisive, but much of it beggars belief...The performances prove equally unmemorable, with the exception of the always reliable Gravatt."
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"Sensitive yet unfocused...Taichman attempts to herd Ferrentino's tonal and thematic cats into a coherent production, landing on one that at least looks professional...A play that feels unfinished, unedited, and rushed to production. This is primarily evident in Ferrentino's scattershot dramaturgy...There are at least two great plays in 'This Flat Earth,' but crammed together like house plants in a dim apartment, they are unable to thrive."
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"A series of feints and trial balloons, with nothing developed enough to claim our interest or engage our emotions...Buried inside Ferrentino's script is an acute commentary on violence and class in America, but it needs further teasing out...A hodgepodge of situations and ideas, and there is little that Taichman can do to bring clarity to it...Has the feel of an early draft, and one wonders if, given the timeliness of its theme, it wasn't rushed into production."
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"'This Flat Earth' displays a keen social conscience and a laudable concern for victims of legislation that thrusts guns into the hands of whoever wants them. What it doesn't do is present this issue with an entirely coherent plot or entirely consistent characters...Director Rebecca Taichman often seems at a loss where to put her idle characters, having them wait motionlessly down a hall or linger on a fire escape. She also encourages overacting."
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"It is challenging for a writer to bring an inarticulate adolescent into focus. It is equally hard for a juvenile actor to realize a hazy character. These weaknesses in composition and performance are compounded by Ferrentino’s sudden attempt late in the story to reframe Julie and the shooting into the perspective of an entire lifetime...Still, there are felicitous touches to this latest play from the talented Ferrentino."
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