DOWNSTATE AT Playwrights Horizon

 DOWNSTATE by Bruce Norris; Directed by Pam MacKinnon

                                    

                                       Francis Guinan and K. Todd Freeman              

Bruce Norris, who won the Pulitzer for Clybourne Park, has come up with an entirely different

subject matter which is quite disturbing as well as gripping throughout.  In the very first scene we

 encounter a very angry and anxiety stricken young man Andy (Tim Hopper ) and Em (Sally Murphy)

 Andy's wife confronting a wheel chair bound older man Fred (Frances Guinan )

We soon realize that Fred is one of the four men convicted of sex crimes against the Minors and Andy is

 one of the victim who thirty years later has found Fred in a group home with three other room mates

 who had been convicted and been sentenced already but now live under the supervision of their parole

 officer Ivy (Susanna Guzman)  who is very strong and caring about their wellfare.

The other three men are, Dee (K. Todd Freeman ) Gio (Glen Davis ) and Felix (Eddie Torres ) . They are

 all convicted of sexual crimes against minors except Gio who served for statuary rape.

These men are not allowed any smart phones or internet leaving a vey claustrophobic life and express

 lots of anger about their situation. In conrast Fred is very calm and in control. He listens to Andy and

 his wife as if nothing dangerous ever happened, but it did and Amdy had been traumatized all his adult

 life.

Fred was a Piano teacher and Andy was his student and Andy's pain is coming across from the stage to

 the audience while Fred still plays Chopin in a very peaceful manner.

Dee on the other hand doesn't believe that he committed a crime. He thinks he had a love

 relationship with a minor who was totally in love with him and used to write him letters during his

 prison stay telling him how much he missed him. Ivy tries very hard to convince Dee that he needs to

 deal with his denial of reality and not hide behind the fake notion of love. K. Todd Freeman, as Dee is 

 very emotional and strong about his belief. He is also the one who takes care of Fred with lot of concern

 about his disability.

Glen Davis as Gio who works at Staples and brings a co-worker, Effie ( Gabi Samels ) home, while he is

 not allowed and they indulge in drugs in defiance and doesn't express any remorse about his past while 

 Eddie Torres as Felix is extremely expressive about his guilt and remorse and try to seek redemption in

 religion, bible is his redemption.

All these characters are extremely disturbing to watch. The play  is about guilt, repentence, redemption

 but there are no simple answers and the playwright deals with all the complexity of these issues which

 are very hard to take with a sense of a razor sharp eye and leave it upto us how to feel about these very

 disturbed and disturbing characters who evoke our disgust and sympathy at the same time.

Pam Mackinnon 's direction is srong and sharp.

                                                      Sally Murphy and Tim Hopper

Reviewed by Bina Sharif (ATCA)

Editor/Publisher:artsinternational.blogspot.com

email:binashariff@gmail.com cell: 212-260-6207

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