This Flat Earth NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (237)
See it if you are open to a play that tackles a hyper relevant topic in a clever way but one that posits far more questions than answers.
Don't see it if you want something a little more cohesive and robust. This play has moments where it's not quite sure what it's trying to say.
See it if You like good writing about topical subjects
Don't see it if You are disturbed by subjects related to school shootings.
See it if You want to see a difficult subject handled with care by an incredibly talented cast. Ella Kennedy Davis is excellent.
Don't see it if Themes of school violence are difficult for you. Read more
See it if Thought provoking and very timely subject matter: school shootings and its effect on the survivors.
Don't see it if I did not completely buy the interpersonal relationships. And did not like the “crystal ball” ending showing the future. Very unnecessary.
See it if you want a perspective on gun violence from a child's POV
Don't see it if you can't suspend disbelief that a 13-year-old would have never heard of a school shooting
See it if you appreciate drama with a sense of humor about a serious and timely subject.
Don't see it if you don't have the stomach for a play dealing with a school shooting.
See it if You've been watching the news and you need to process your feelings.
Don't see it if you have a gun at home. Read more
See it if you would like to see a smart playwright take on a hard topic in a mostly successful way, with great young actors at its heart.
Don't see it if a disappointing final 15 mins would ruin for you what is otherwise a very solid show or if you can't handle a show about a school shooting. Read more
Critic Reviews (24)
"Affecting yet sometimes maudlin new work...Ferrentino’s sharpest drawn character is Julie and Dan’s elderly upstairs neighbor, Cloris, splendidly portrayed by the great Lynda Gravatt...Sadly, Ferrentino is on less firm ground with her male characters and their presence really dilutes the play’s effectiveness...One only wishes that 'This Flat Earth' didn’t fall so flat quite so often."
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"Ferrentino…crafts individually effective scenes but struggles to mold them into well-focused, unified dramas, with consistently believable characters…The most striking thing is...the impressive two-story set…Gravátt, with her lovely combination of gravity and lightness, and the baby-faced Davis, a deeply impressive, delicately sensitive young actress in a breakout performance…It's not enough to rescue the unmemorable 'This Flat Earth,' which…Taichman…can do little to inflate."
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"Ferrentino uses that ripped-from-the-headlines moment, but never constructs a cogent story to give life to the issue of gun violence. At every turn in her plot, 'This Flat Earth' appears contrived, and it’s here that her play’s topicality actually works against the drama...Rebecca Taichman directs, and she is at her best when giving us moments of fantasy."
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"I was disappointed. From the very first moment, I didn't buy into it...The topics of gun violence and income inequality could hardly be more relevant and the idea that music has the power to comfort is appealing. Somehow, it just did not come together for me. The level of acting varies, with Cassie Beck and Lynda Gravatt standing out...Taichman's direction hits all the right notes, but the play itself needs a tuning."
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"A poignant and distressingly timely new play takes on the question of how kids and parents navigate catastrophe's aftershocks with an illuminating - and refreshing - frankness...The mix of perennial school-day dilemmas with a shooting's tragic aftermath draws us closer to imagining what often feels so unimaginable...The play's most devastating insight is that kids are learning early and often that adults don't always have the answers - even, and especially, when lives are at stake."
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"The play builds slowly, darting in many disparate directions as it establishes relationships and conflict that climax in a suddenly surreal closing scene that is beautiful and heart-wrenching, but feels like it belongs in a different play...The themes at work and questions asked are better and larger than the play at hand, but if 'This Flat Earth' serves as nothing more than a vessel for their exploration, however muddled, I suppose it has done its most basic job."
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"The play's portrayal of grief was one of the most realistic representations I have seen onstage, with a good balance of confronting politically-themed topics and their related emotions. While never feeling overly political or overly dramatic, the play is the perfect amalgamation of our current news agenda through a humanistic lens. There were moments when I could hear audience members audibly crying, but there were also moments when we all laughed."
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"'This Flat Earth' is an important play....This production is a clear clarion call for a problem that is only now becoming locked into our national psyche even though it's grown from a constant and seemingly unending set of events...There is no hammer here pounding the nail home. There is no rallying cry driving you to action. There is just a constant sense of truth in the midst of heartfelt questions and genuine pain...The production is deftly directed by Rebecca Taichman."
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