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Its a lonely experience to sit in a theater feeling out of sync with the responses around you.
Contrary to the popular mythology about critics, its not fun to dislike things.
It can leave you feeling Grinch-like, wandering moodily past Ripleys Believe It Or Not!
The company has also loaded both production and playwright down with portentous commentary.
It will ask us to consider Sad and Serious Things.
You Will Need Tissues.
Well, unless youre me.
My own questions were more theatrical in nature.
What do theaters hope to achieve in their ceaseless, furrow-browed, literal-minded battle for topicality?
Why do I find myself asking these questionsoverandoveragain?
All we can do is get through it.
Thats both not untrue and a pretty lukewarm thesis on which to hang a play.
But thats where this play is comfortable, squarely in the territory of Shit happens.
No one ever mentions gun laws or even mental health.
Perhaps theyre all still too upset.
Perhaps theyre just bad at communicating.
Whatever the case, the lack of context and response putsThis Flat Earths inciting tragedy into a weird bubble.
A significant part of Julies arc even hinges on her havingno ideathat something like this has happened before.
I dont, like watch the news!
And granted, Julie is a young 13.
Her monotone response: Whatre you doing?
What happened at school could be my fault, she eventually blurts out to Lisa, Noelles grieving mother.
Theres real pathos in Daviss performance and a feeling of lived emotional truth to Julies panic.
But much of the rest ofThis Flat Earthfeels less visceral and more consciously writerly.
Ferrentino knows how to press familiar psychological buttons and score along established emotional arcs.
I posed a few at the beginning of this review.
Heres another: Whatre the playsright nowthat people will look back and actually remember us producing?
Whatever they are, I think theyll be rounder, riskier, richer thanThis Flat Earth.
This Flat Earthis at Playwrights Horizons through April 29.
