{"id":510550,"date":"2022-11-16T05:31:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-16T02:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/shocking-downstate-is-the-seasons-best-play-so-far\/"},"modified":"2022-11-16T05:31:00","modified_gmt":"2022-11-16T02:31:00","slug":"shocking-downstate-is-the-seasons-best-play-so-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/shocking-downstate-is-the-seasons-best-play-so-far\/","title":{"rendered":"#Shocking &#8216;Downstate&#8217; is the season&#8217;s best play so far"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a28140cc8f7d\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a28140cc8f7d\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/shocking-downstate-is-the-seasons-best-play-so-far\/#%E2%80%9CShocking_%E2%80%98Downstate_is_the_seasons_best_play_so_far%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;Shocking &#8216;Downstate&#8217; is the season&#8217;s best play so far&#8221;<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CShocking_%E2%80%98Downstate_is_the_seasons_best_play_so_far%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;Shocking &#8216;Downstate&#8217; is the season&#8217;s best play so far&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n<p>It will be hard to top the play \u201cDownstate,\u201d which opened Tuesday night at Playwrights Horizons, for controversy this season. Written by the fearless playwright Bruce Norris, the drama is set in a group home for sex offenders and pedophiles.<\/p>\n<p>From the location alone, you already know if you\u2019re willing to buy a ticket or not. Some will adamantly maintain that such criminals do not deserve to be the subject of any play; that the idea itself is so offensive and unpalatable that the execution doesn\u2019t matter. They are dead wrong.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>If the world was perfectly fine with a glossy <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">TV series<\/a> about Jeffrey Dahmer, a prolific serial killer and cannibal, then it can also handle a brilliant, risky, in-your-face, far-better drama about another of society\u2019s shadowed taboos.\u00a0<\/p>\n<div class=\"inline-module inline-module--review alignleft\">\n<div class=\"inline-module__inner\">\n        <span class=\"inline-module--review__eyebrow widget-heading-semi__label\"><br \/>\n            Theater review      <\/span><\/p>\n<p>        2 hours and 30 minutes at Playwrights Horizons, &lt;br&gt;416 W. 42nd St.\n    <\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Turn your nose up and skip it if you want to miss one of the best plays of the season.<\/p>\n<p>Norris, whose other probing and unexpectedly funny show \u201cClybourne Park\u201d won the Tony for Best Play in 2012, plopped his drama somewhere south of Chicago. Just as New Yorkers refer to an impossibly wide swath of diverse land as \u201cupstate,\u201d so too does Illinois, just in the other direction. <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">App<\/a>ropriately, the lower portion is the part of the Land of Lincoln people don\u2019t like to talk about very much.<\/p>\n<p>In this college-style apartment live four men, each wearing a GPS ankle bracelet, who have committed a sex crime. All their acts are undeniably wrong; however, they run the gamut of egregiousness. Gio (Glenn Davis), for instance, is a 30-something \u201cLevel One\u201d offender, meaning low risk, because he slept with an underage girl who was using a fake ID. His roommates, Fred (Francis Guinan), Dee (K. Todd Freeman) and Felix (Eddie Torres, full of anguish), are \u201cLevel Threes\u201d and are guilty of much more appalling acts.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/downstate-play-03.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"From left to right, Dee (K. Todd Freeman), Fred (Francis Guinan), Gio (Glenn Davis) and Felix (Eddie Torres) are sex offenders who live in a group home. \" class=\"wp-image-24664143\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/downstate-play-03.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/downstate-play-03.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/downstate-play-03.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>From left to right, Dee (K. Todd Freeman), Fred (Francis Guinan), Gio (Glenn Davis) and Felix (Eddie Torres) are sex offenders who live in a group home and are visited by parole officer Ivy (Susanna Guzm\u00e1n). <\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Joan Marcus<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Some, including elderly Fred, who uses a motor scooter, claim to be ashamed of what they did. Others, such as Dee, insist they did nothing wrong.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>What sets the play in motion is the visit of Andy (Tim Hopper), a now-adult victim of Fred\u2019s when he was his young piano student, with his wife Em (Sally Murphy) to confront the man who\u2019s in his 70s.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Andy thinks the tense meeting will be cathartic and triumphant, like a climactic trial scene out of a movie, and close out a painful chapter of his life. He prepared an eviscerating statement he wants Fred to sign. But Fred won\u2019t do it. Nothing changes for the better, and a messy new chapter begins.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/downstate-play-13.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"Andy (Tim Hopper, right) and wife Em (Sally Murphy) confront Andy's abuser from when he was a child. \" class=\"wp-image-24664146\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/downstate-play-13.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/downstate-play-13.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/downstate-play-13.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Andy (Tim Hopper) and wife Em (Sally Murphy) confront Andy\u2019s abuser from when he was a child. <\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Joan Marcus<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>We mainly learn about the men\u2019s circumstances through visits from their hardened parole officer, Ivy (Susanna Guzm\u00e1n, neighborly yet stern), who checks in and interviews them. Over this one day, explosive events happen \u2014 violent both verbally and physically. By the end, though, we realize what\u2019s shocking to us is normal for them. There have been other days like this and there will be more.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Norris has written a complex and compassionate play, but not a preachy or judgmental one. The audience is never pushed to forgive or condemn, but rather to evaluate. Some past events we learn about are clear-cut horrific, while others are more layered. The punishment, to these characters\u2019 fury, is equal.<\/p>\n<p>Director Pam MacKinnon\u2019s production, from Chicago\u2019s Steppenwolf Theater Company, is simple and Todd Rosenthal\u2019s set is one of those gray-carpet, fluorescently lit apartments that people hastily move into during a divorce. The focus here is squarely on the acting.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/downstate-play-10.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"Francis Guinan, left, and K. Todd Freeman are doing some of the best work of their careers. \" class=\"wp-image-24664145\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/downstate-play-10.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/downstate-play-10.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/downstate-play-10.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Francis Guinan, left, and K. Todd Freeman are doing some of the best work of their careers. <\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Joan Marcus<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Freeman as Dee is defiant, logical and forceful, as though he\u2019s carefully crafted his talking points in his head for decades, and then wickedly funny out of nowhere. The actor is doing the best work of his long career. Fred, meanwhile, plays up Guinan\u2019s ability to be simultaneously gentle and threatening.<\/p>\n<p>Hopper has the hardest job here. Andy is not a particularly embraceable character, with Norris seeming to say just because you\u2019re a victim doesn\u2019t make you inherently likable. Hopper has Andy shake, sputter and shout and the character makes choices that, although understandable, are futile and will inevitably blow up. \u201cJust go home,\u201d we silently implore him over and over.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Few plays as invigorating as \u201cDownstate\u201d will come along this season, and I\u2019m sure, a potential Broadway move is being discussed. And yes, the extraordinary work deserves one. But the best choice would be to stay put where it is. Broadway, sadly, has become a place where acclaimed off-Broadway shows go to die. Despite heaps of acclaim and buzz, they just can\u2019t find a robust audience anymore. Great works such as Norris\u2019 should bow out with packed houses and their heads held high \u2014 not plastered on discount ticket fliers in Times Square puddles.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\n                        <\/p><\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/11\/15\/shocking-downstate-is-the-seasons-best-play-so-far\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Shocking &#8216;Downstate&#8217; is the season&#8217;s best play so far&#8221; It will be hard to top the play \u201cDownstate,\u201d which opened Tuesday night at Playwrights Horizons, for controversy this season. Written by the fearless playwright Bruce Norris, the drama is set in a group home for sex offenders and pedophiles. From the location alone, you already&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":510551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/downstate-play-09.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[135574,80988,70731],"class_list":["post-510550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-11-15-22","tag-plays","tag-theater-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}