Downstate

This is the warning Studio Theatre gives you before you go to see Downstate. “It is a provocative play set in a group home for men who have completed their sentences for sexual crimes against minors. It discusses incidents of sexual abuse in frank detail and describes or depicts physical violence and self-harm. Studio encourages audience members to consider their own needs and boundaries in deciding whether to experience this production.”  I would agree with all this. It is written by Bruce Norris and directed by the brilliant David Muse, Artistic Director of the Studio Theatre. 

This is definitely a difficult play to watch in many ways, even for someone who has had no personal experience with pedophilia, or sexual violence. The play seems to be written to generate a debate about what we as society should do with sexual perpetrators. What is the appropriate punishment? 

There is an interesting statement in the play made by Andy, who is the victim of a childhood rape, when he is confronting his abuser, who is now in the group home, after having gotten out of jail. He has a debate with one of the other pedophiles in the home. Andy says “The victim always remembers it right.” That statement is called into question by one of the other residents of the house. To me, it brought up the debate society has been having with regard to what we are calling the ‘me too’ attacks on women. Andy represents all those who believe that any incident like that impacts your entire life in multiple ways. You don’t actually get over it, even if you survive it. In this case Andy confronts his abuser with some claims the abuser says he never did. 

While the subject matter is hard to hear, the acting by the entire cast is uniformly superb. Tim Getman, as Andy, the victim, is brilliant in this role. As the play opens, he has traveled with his wife to confront Fred, Dan Daily, who is the person who raped him as a child. Fred is now confined to a wheelchair, and plays the role in an understated and effective way. Stephen Conrad Moore, who plays Dee, the very out homosexual, who also assumes the role of house mother for the other three in the group home. He apparently still doesn’t think what he did to a fourteen-year-old, and was convicted of, is that bad. Rather he sees it as a ‘relationship’. He is superb in the role. Jaysen Wright as GIO is perfect as the young man who got less of a sentence and thinks what he did isn’t that bad, and now goes out during the day to a job at Staples. He is focused on what he will do when he is allowed back into society. He is loud and brash, and a rule breaker, even in the group home. Then there is Richard Ruiz Henry, as Felix. He is the quieter one in the home. But turns out the most plagued by his life as it is now.

Taken together the cast keeps you riveted especially in the second act, which is the more dramatic of the two. The creative team has done a good job and their excellent work fades quietly, and effectively, into the background.

Downstate will be at Studio until February 16th. Tickets are available online.