Thanks, mikem, for your thoughtful response. I agree with all that you wrote but wonder if any controversy that occurs might bring even greater attention to the play. A wider group of people, including those less plugged into the world of theater, might become aware of the play. I guess I’m suggesting that any resulting controversy might not be bad for the play.
The play is quite, literally, a stunner. The characters and situations are written and performed with so much depth and complexity, by the end I felt like my world had been upended. You think you know how you might feel towards these men, but the play completely subverts your expectations. The ending - although I saw it coming - still took my breath away. It was staged so viscerally. In addition to the primary focus on the ramifications child sexual abuse, this play also exposes issues around class and race, power and authority, memory and its failure. It has so many layers.
A Case For the Existence of God is another play I really enjoyed, but it didn’t have the same impact, for me, as Downstate. Lovely direction and effective lighting design as well as two wonderful central performances in that one.
If either or both transferred I would see them again. |
