Darlings, We Are Back On The Aisle, With "Downstate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

                                         One of the more interesting things about this play is it was written by Bruce Norris, who wrote the Pulitzer Prize winning "Clybourne Park," which opened on Broadway on April 19, 2012.  I so wanted to see it but was never given the chance.  The play went on to win the TONY Award that season for Best Play, so this current offering had much promise.

                                        The premise is arresting--the lives and interactions of the inhabitants of a halfway house for sex offenders.  Yes, this may put off some people, but believe it or not, Norris seems to work some humor into the play, even if the audience's laughter seems of the nervous kind.

                                         I have to wonder--how may audience members each performance are actual sex offenders?  Or has this been performed before them in prisons?  I wonder.  And I wonder how they would react to the material.

                                        It has a first-rate cast, if not a stellar one.  The outstanding performances are Thomas Sadoski as Andy, a victim confronting his abuser, a former piano teacher played by Francis Guina, as well as K. Todd Freeman as the house monitor, and Liza Colon-Zayas as the parole officer.  And herein lies the problem.  These characters are central; the rest are unnecessary.   This play needs to be cut and trimmed so it can dig deeper into the idea of sex offender versus victim.  As such the play is too crammed with actors to go any deeper.  Good as its moments were, it seemed like a work in progress, and I would love to see it again, once it has been ironed out.  And again, with a more sterling cast, but keep Sadoski.

                                        Joe Mantello directed this and let me tell you he did a better job with this than his disappointing interpretation of "Death Of A Salesman."  Hey, Joe, sometime we will meet on stage, and let's see you try to intimate me!  You think BARBRA is difficult????????????

                                       One thing it gets right.  The abused never forgets what happened and remembers every single detail.

                                       This is coming not only from a critic or blogger, but one who was sexually assaulted myself on November 12, 1970, six days before my sixteenth birthday.

                                       As the child Blanche says at the opening of 'Baby Jane--"

                                     "I won't forget.  You BET I won't forget."