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Reviews are in for Downstate, a play that questions the societal punishment inflicted upon post-incarceration pedophiles, and they are positive.

The play, written by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Bruce Norris, is currently running off-Broadway after premiering at Chicago‘s Steppenwolf theatre pre-pandemic in 2018.

The piece centers on a group down in downstate Illinois, at which a group of four men, each a registered sex offender who abused at least one child, live menial existences.

According to a large handful of reviews from the nation’s top outlets, the work is an uncomfortable triumph by Norris that ‘wants to make you sit in discomfort as long as possible and see what lies on the other side,’ according to Jackson McHenry of New York Magazine and Vulture.

Washington Post’s chief theatre critic Peter Marks called the play ‘brilliant’, writing: ‘[Norris] is questioning what degree of compassion should society fairly hold out to those who have served their time for sexual abuse, assault or rape.’

In the review, Marks says the award-winning playwright toys with the position that believes ‘the punishments inflicted on some pedophiles are so harsh and unrelenting as to be inhumane.’

Downstate - a play by Bruce Norris about four convicted pedophiles living together in Illinois. The show is currently running Off-Broadway

Downstate – a play by Bruce Norris about four convicted pedophiles living together in Illinois. The show is currently running Off-Broadway

The play revolves around a central theme of mercy for formerly incarcerated sex offenders who are living out their days in a rundown group home, working menial jobs

The play revolves around a central theme of mercy for formerly incarcerated sex offenders who are living out their days in a rundown group home, working menial jobs

Critics from the journals that cater to the country’s elite theatre-going population were careful to mask plaudits for the complex work in language that largely avoids straightforward praise for the controversial stage work.

Peter Marks of the Washington Post wrote that upon learning the details of the crime that each felon has committed, ‘we are in effect asked to judge for ourselves what magnitude of ongoing torment each deserves.’

He continues that Norris does not ‘minimize’ the horrifying nature of the sexual crimes of his characters, nor, however, ‘does he turn the play into a finger-wagging referendum on the repulsiveness of their behavior.’

Included in that repulsiveness is the behavior of Felix, the most reserved of the group, who attempts to contact his 15-year-old daughter, which is explicitly forbidden because he molested her as a child.

The molestation is described in graphic terms onstage and the attempt at contact leads to a fiery confrontation with the group’s parole officer, Ivy.

One character in particular, Fred, described as ‘a chipper, white-haired man in his 70s’ is repeatedly described as disturbingly charming relative to his crimes.

The character is a former piano teacher who raped an underage male student and was sent to prison where he was attacked, leaving him wheelchair bound.

During the play, Fred is confronted by his former student Andy, who the critics reveal comes across annoying and entitled, thereby creating the uncomfortable emotional juxtaposition of a cheerful old music man, who happens to be a rapist, and an unsympathetic big-city financier, who happens to be a victim of rape.

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Those sorts of tensions dominate the play and leave the audience wrestling with ‘questions of mercy’ long after leaving the theatre.

Fred (right), played by Francis Guinan, is a former piano teacher who raped his young male students. He is now a chipper old man in a wheelchair who is confronted in the play by Andy (left), played by Tom Hopper, one of his victims

Fred (right), played by Francis Guinan, is a former piano teacher who raped his young male students. He is now a chipper old man in a wheelchair who is confronted in the play by Andy (left), played by Tom Hopper, one of his victims

The play also features Eddie Torres as Felix, a mechanic who molested his daughter as a child, who gets into an ugly confrontation with the house's probation officer, played by Susanna Guzmán

The play also features Eddie Torres as Felix, a mechanic who molested his daughter as a child, who gets into an ugly confrontation with the house’s probation officer, played by Susanna Guzmán

The play, which originally premiered pre-COVID at Steppenwolf in Chicago, was chosen by the New York Times as a Critic's Pick

The play, which originally premiered pre-COVID at Steppenwolf in Chicago, was chosen by the New York Times as a Critic’s Pick

The illegal sex acts of the four main characters are graphically described on stage as the audience wrestles with big questions about morality and mercy

The illegal sex acts of the four main characters are graphically described on stage as the audience wrestles with big questions about morality and mercy

Laura Collins-Hughes, of the New York Times, which selected Downstate as a ‘Critic’s Pick’ wrote that the ‘tension’ of the show ‘seeps into your limbs, settles tautly in your solar plexus and does not leave.’

The play, she wrote, balances the ‘thought of all the damage these men have wrought’ with the ‘severity of their exile.’

‘How much retribution is enough? And what quantity of compassion — bestowed on whom — is too much?’ she wonders, after praising the direction and acting in Downstate.

In the post, Marks concludes his review by writing, ”Downstate’ is proof positive that you can love a play that turns you inside out.’ 

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