This Flat Earth

See it if you want to explore the after-math of school shooting & it's affect on a whiny, self-absorbed, sheltered teenager.

Don't see it if whiny teens grate on your last nerve. Young lead actress has potential but her voice & mannerisms are excruciating. 1.5hrs no intermission

See it if you are interested in any play dealing with gun violence in schools no matter how unfinished or thought through it is.

Don't see it if you are looking for good acting, direction or writing. This had no business being produced. Sad, because it is a timely subject.

See it if Watch Rebecca Taichman try to distract you from cloying characters in a hollow play with a live cello player.

Don't see it if You want any kind of interesting thought, questions, or characters onstage. You want to be challenged in any way.

Also Is this playwright desperate to be programmed? She seems to write plays by numbers based on topical issues, with no consideration of the characters onstage. They are nearly antithetical to drama itself, substituting emotional arc for a series of plot cliches. The play doesn't know where to go so has an (offensive magical black woman character) talk about how this little girl's life will go on! How was that programmed in this day and age?? Ends the same way as Amy and the Orphans, with the main character shouting at the audience. Especially in a time post-Parkland, where we are seeing just how astute and proactive students can be, this play is an insult to the intelligence of young people.... Read more Read less

See it if You're interested in the topic of gun violence and children's reactions to it.

Don't see it if You are irritated by poorly thought out logic/plotlines, half-baked political ideas, and superficial timeliness.

See it if you want to see one poetic monologue (delivered by a rather pointless character) in the last 15 min of an otherwise graceless, plodding play

Don't see it if you think -- just because of the topic -- this is a relevant, important or original contribution to the conversation about school violence.

Also The aforementioned monologue, albeit nicely written and lyrically spoken (by Linda Gravatt), is also the biggest cop-out I've seen in the theatre in a long time. 75 minutes into the play, when you begin to wonder (if you're still paying attention) how & when they're going to wrap up the many storylines introduced thus far, the rationale for an otherwise inexplicable character becomes clear. She is there merely (and mysteriously) to explain how each character's storylines end. What an inelegant, lazy and undramatic way to conclude a stage play!... Read more Read less

See it if you are interested in another clinker from Playwrights Horizons. The only saving grace is Lynda Gravatt's final monologue.

Don't see it if Just don't. A waste of time and money.

Also Lindsey Ferrentino showed great promise with her first play, "Ugly Lies The Bone." Since that promise, she is steadily going downhill:first, with the sitcom-like "Amy and the Orphans" in which she missed a great opportunity. And now with "This Flat Earth" Ferrentino continues with one-dimensional characters, and a plot that goes nowhere. 90 minutes seem like an eternity. The writing is lazy, and the direction is not much better.... Read more Read less

See it if You get a free ticket and need a nap.

Don't see it if You have even moderate expectations of realistic dialogue, genuine relationships, or beleivabke performances.

Also I see every show at Playwrights and unusually am a big fan. This is a total whiff. A swing and a miss. An embarrassing play and production. Sorry.... Read more Read less

See it if You are eager to see a play on one of the most topical subjects of today.

Don't see it if You prefer a drama which reflects how people actually act and speak. The artificiality of this play is painful to endure.

See it if You want to discuss long afterward what you just saw.

Don't see it if You have lost someone, particularly a child, to gun violence and are looking for a meaningful, realistic portrayal of life after it.

Also This is a very slow, meandering story that goes nowhere told by people for whom I could not have cared less.The cellist’s interludes, well-played, were distracting. Great set! If you go, don’t sit in the first two rows. You’ll miss the scenes on the upper level.... Read more Read less

See it if One day there will be a great play written about the catastrophic effects of school shootings on U.S. families, until then you have this.

Don't see it if You didn't like Amy & the Orphans or other plays by Lindsay Ferrentino. I've decided I do not like her work. Wooden dialogue/contrived plots

See it if Hard to think of a reason.

Don't see it if You're anything like me.

See it if you want to promote well-intentioned shows dealing with serious contemporary issues.

Don't see it if you normally love Rebecca Taichman - it's shocking that a director whose work is typically vibrant would be attached to such a wooden show.

Also There's a common thread between this and another Lindsey Ferrentino script, Amy and the Orphans, that ... I'm not going to say in print because it would get me in trouble. Ask me IRL someday.... Read more Read less

See it if can't think of a single reason, except perhaps if you believe that MAKING theater is always better than NOT doing so.

Don't see it if you object to cliched, manipulative, atrociously acted, vaguely directed, sorely underdeveloped "topical" pieces.

Also I walked out of the theater irrationally angry at having wasted 90 minutes on this show. The subject matter is enthralling and couldn't be more timely. The director is evidently a master of her craft, as evidenced elsewhere. And I can readily believe that the adult actors would be very good with other material. And yet... I found the writing, the approach to the theme, the heavy-handedness, the thinly-veiled emotional manipulation, the paper-thin contrived plot, the unthinkably shallow performances of the young lead actors to add up to an excruciating experience that truly undermined and annihilated the admittedly admirable message at the heart of the show. Skip skip skip skip.... Read more Read less

See it if You identify with the characters. Strong performances from Cassie Beck and Ella Davis. Set is well-done. Adequate direction and staging.

Don't see it if Overloaded, with no discernible convergence to its many subplots. Julie's final monologue is disjointed as heck. READ BELOW.

Also This play makes me livid. Why do all white children/teen characters in theatre have to be such rude, spoiled, selfish, uninformed brats?

A description reads that in response to idle adults, Julie and Xander "take matters into their own hands." What a joke. None of them ever act except out of self-interest.

A note in the playbill from the Artistic Director further promises eschewing of the "sanctimony and decorum" with which his ilk often handles this material. Having seen This Flat Earth, I can only call it hypocrisy of the highest order.

Sure, this isn't a political play, and one for which gun violence only serves as a backdrop, but the sentiment embodied by its infuriating characters to the unfortunate world around them isn't numbness, it's ignorance at best.

The crux of the play is supposedly "helpless cynicism," but it just feels like pathetic nihilism, and the kind that only the affluent white who grew up believing the world revolved around them can identify with... Read more Read less