Downstate (NHB Modern Plays)

In downstate Illinois, four men convicted of sex crimes against minors share a group home where they live out their lives in the shadow of the offences they committed. A man shows up to confront his childhood abuser - but does he want closure or retribution?

Bruce Norris's provocative play Downstate zeroes in on the limits of our compassion and what happens when society deems anyone beyond forgiveness. It received its UK premiere at the National Theatre, London, in March 2019, in the same production which had its world premiere at Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago, in September 2018.

'An unsentimental act of compassion and a devastating entertainment, a wry polemic and the darkest of dark comedies' - Chicago Reader

'[An] audacious, highly charged play' - Daily Herald

Auteur

Bruce Norris is an American actor and playwright associated with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company of Chicago.

His plays include: Downstate (Steppenwolf, 2018; National Theatre, 2019); The Low Road (Royal Court Theatre, 2013); Clybourne Park (New York, 2010; Royal Court Theatre, 2010); The Pain and the Itch (Steppenwolf, 2005; Royal Court Theatre, 2007) and Purple Heart (Steppenwolf, 2002).

His play Clybourne Park won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.