December recommendations

CW: child sexual abuse

🗽 NYC: DOWNSTATE by Bruce Norris, directed by Pam MacKinnon, presented by Playwrights Horizons

At a registered address in downstate Illinois, four men convicted of sex crimes share a group home where they live out their days post-incarceration. When a man shows up to confront his childhood abuser, it becomes hard to locate the line between justice and retribution.

This is not a play for the faint of heart. But neither does the phrase “hard to watch” feel quite appropriate. It’s a play about sex offenders, the carceral system, and trauma—there are certainly parts that are hard to watch. But it’s also a play and a production made with a lot of care, including care for audience. Statistically

¹

speaking, a handful of people in every audience of DOWNSTATE will have been sexually abused as a child. The play feels like was made with that in mind.

DOWNSTATE proposes no solutions, but it digs deeply into some very complicated questions that we don’t often hear discussed with any nuance. What does justice look like? How does justice differ from punishment? What do we do with trauma? Can we protect people from harm and also treat the perpetrators with dignity? It’s a beautiful example of one of the things that theatre can do uniquely well: illustrate different, sometimes contradictory, facets of a problem in-depth and thoughtfully, and make you feel differently about the problem in the end.

DOWNSTATE is also full of universally spectacular performances from a cast truly giving their all. It feels like a gift to witness actors inhabit difficult characters for so long and do so with the compassion that they bring to DOWNSTATE. Don’t miss it.

🚶🏽watch in person at Playwrights Horizons: 416 W 42nd St, New York, NY 💰 tickets from $30
❗️If you are 35 or under, or a full-time student, you can become a Young Member for free to access $20 tickets. $10 tickets available with a Student Membership.
📆 through December 22
😷 must wear a mask for the whole show

🗽NYC: EVANSTON SALT COSTS CLIMBING by Will Arbery, directed by Danya Taymor, presented by The New Group

Winters keep getting worse in Evanston, IL where salt truck drivers Peter and Basil battle the ice and snow and pass the time with jokes and stories. But what’s with this creeping sense of dread? Is it because their boss Maiworm has noble visions of new green technology that would make their jobs obsolete? Or is there a more terrifying warning calling out from under these roads? At least they have each other, right?

This is a controversial one! Anecdotally, I’m hearing strong reactions. I happened to love it. The pace is slow and thoughtful, and that feels par for the course to me in depicting the world of city laborers and bureaucrats. But I would watch Quincy Tyler Bernstine (and honestly any of these other actors) read the phonebook, so I was happy to strap in. And I’m always game to watch Danya Taymor’s productions of Will Arbery plays—she nails the rhythm of his language so precisely. I sound like a broken record, but the performances are also gorgeous!

I couldn’t explain everything I saw in the play, because it gets weird. But the weird felt very much like facing the climate crisis: I can’t quite wrap my brain around it, and every once in a while I need a primal scream. I appreciate this new wave of climate plays. They’re not apocalyptic, exactly, and they’re not focused on waking us up to the crisis we’re facing. Instead, they’re looking into what this new era might be like. They’re about people taking on the monumental task of adapting to a changing climate.

So if you, like me, are thinking, “I can’t bear to watch another play that’s going to make me feel more depressed about something I already feel depressed about 99% of the time,” this isn’t that play. It’s not going to yell at you. It’s going to sit with you and stare into the abyss.

🚶🏽watch in person at Signature Theatre: 480 W 42nd St, New York, NY
💰 tickets from $30
📆 through December 18
😷 must wear a mask for the whole show

🌃 Chicago: AMONG THE DEAD by Hansol Jung, directed by Kaiser Ahmed, at Jackalope Theatre

Ana is a Korean American who travels to Seoul in 1975 to retrieve her recently deceased father’s ashes. Luke is a young American soldier fighting in the jungles of Myanmar in 1944. Number Four is the name of a Korean comfort woman camping out on a bridge in Seoul in 1950, waiting for the return of the young American soldier who fathered her daughter. Three separate time periods collide in a small hotel room in Korea, mediated by a shape-shifting Jesus who first shows up as a bellboy.

I haven’t seen this production, but I feel confident recommending it because I adore Hansol’s writing. It’s funny, creative, playful, and deeply affecting. When I see one of her plays, I know I’m going to see something unexpected. I also really enjoyed Kaiser Ahmed’s direction of PASSAGE and I’m eager to see his take on this play. The tagline is “AMONG THE DEAD is a dark comedy about a family broken apart by betrayed promises, and finding each other again through SPAM, journals, and Jesus. Mostly Jesus.” Don’t tell me you don’t want to know more!

And if you do see it, I’d love to hear your thoughts! You can reply to this email or find me at lila.rachel.becker [at] hey.com.

🚶🏽watch in person at Broadway Armory Park: 5917 N Broadway, Chicago, IL
💰 tickets $15-$30
‼️ through December 11
😷 must wear a mask for the whole show

1. https://www.rainn.org/statistics/children-and-teens