"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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