Detroit at Steppenwolf
Opening Night: September 19, 2010
Closing: November 7, 2010
Theater: Steppenwolf Theatre
In a “first ring” suburb outside a mid-sized American city, Ben and Mary fire up the grill to welcome the new neighbors who’ve moved into the long-empty house next door. The fledgling friendship soon veers out of control, shattering the fragile hold Ben and Mary have on their way of life – with unexpected comic consequences. Detroit is a fresh, off-beat look at what happens when we dare to open ourselves up to something new.
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October 22, 2010
CHICAGO — The backyard barbecue, that homey symbol of suburban togetherness, occasions conflagrations emotional and literal in the terrific new play “Detroit,” by Lisa D’Amour, at the Steppenwolf Theater here. This scary-funny comedy, set in a nameless housing tract possibly, but not necessarily, outside the city of the title, speaks to the fractious, frightened American moment more perceptively than any play I’ve seen on a New York stage.
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October 25, 2010
Detroit," a smart and frequently funny new play by Lisa D’Amour about two couples clinging desperately to the remnants of the American Dream, makes no secret of the fact that it is operating both as amusing narrative and as metaphor. In fact, the titular city doesn’t just represent a specific locale (the work, according to the program, is set vaguely in "the first-ring suburb of a mid-sized city,"), but Detroit is clearly the most recognizable example of the nation’s economic unmooring. The Motor City of the title is simply America itself, a culture built on optimism and entrepreneurial spirit, but now addicted to terrible habits and mostly ignoring its ever-more-rickety infrastructure. Read more: http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117943651.html?categoryid=33&cs=1#ixzz13NtWBzSO Visit Variety.com to become a Variety subscriber.
READ THE REVIEWSeptember 22, 2010
It’s high time indeed for a major new play about the soul-destroying layoffs, the collapse in real estate values and the general economic malaise that has gripped much of this land, up-ended our social hierarchies and, for many, turned the middle-class suburban dream into a greasy fireman’s pole with snapping turtles at its base.
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September 22, 2010
When people unfamiliar with the work of Russian playwright Anton Chekhov see his plays, they often feel that nothing happens. His characters spend weeks eating, taking tea, drinking vodka, airing complaints, engaging in dalliances and sighing with unrequited love before any major dramatic event takes place. Still, by the end of the play everyone’s lives have changed forever. Lisa D’Amour’s engaging new play Detroit, now being presented by the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, takes place far away from Russia, but it ultimately shares some — if not quite enough — Chekhovian attributes.
READ THE REVIEWSeptember 23, 2010
D’Amour’s biting new dark comedy of economic anxiety makes few references to Motor City. Struggling suburban homeowners Mary (Metcalf) and Ben (Barford) are a paralegal and a laid-off loan officer, respectively, and the many previous addresses of new neighbors Sharon (Arrington) and Kenny (Anderson) suggest this could as easily be a suburb of Chicago or Atlanta. (The playwright is a Brooklynite from New Orleans.) D’Amour’s story, cleverly unfurled in off-kilter backyard encounters between the two couples, isn’t new; in fact, it’s not so far off from Death of a Salesman’s elusiveness of the American Dream.
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