Detroit A Play

In a "first ring" suburb outside a midsize 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 that newly unemployed Ben and burgeoning alcoholic Mary have on their way of lifewith unexpected comic consequences. Detroitis a fresh, offbeat look at what happens when we dare to open ourselves up to something new. After premiering at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre last year to rave reviews, Lisa D'Amour's brilliant and timely play moves to Broadway this fall.

Lisa D’Amour is an Obie Award–winning playwright and one half of PearlDamour, an interdisciplinary performance company she runs with Katie Pearl. Her work has been produced by theaters such as Steppenwolf Theatre, Children’s Theater Company, Clubbed Thumb, the Walker Arts Center, and the Kitchen. D’Amour received her MFA in playwriting from the University of Texas at Austin and currently splits her time between Brooklyn and New Orleans.

“This scary-funny comedy . . . speaks to the fractious, frightened American moment more perceptively than any play I’ve seen on a New York stage.” —Charles Isherwood, The New York Times “Detroit is a brilliantly observed piece of art about a particular time and place. That time is now—and by now I mean the current post-recessionary America. That place is a pair of backyards in the suburb of a great American city that has been rocked on its heels.” —Chris Jones, The Chicago Tribune