Is This a Room is the astonishingly true story of Reality Winner, the 25-year-old former Air Force linguist who was surprised at her home by the FBI on June 3, 2017. The play’s text is taken from the FBI transcript of her interrogation – and from these pages, Tina Satter has wrought an extraordinary human drama between Reality (Emily Davis) and the agents who question her. In this theatrical thriller, Reality’s life is upended before our eyes, and we’re left questioning American values and the very nature of the truth.
s This A Room still has a movingly human presence at its core. Davis gives a performance of heart-wrenching rawness and lucidity; as you watch her dissolve from the inside, what emerges with force is a sympathetic and specific portrait of a young woman trying to do the right thing in a very wrong time. This is a spare show, but Satter doesn't have to add much to the text to keep us fastened in. Reality is interesting enough.
How does mind-numbing banality become heart-racing excitement? In 'Is This a Room,' the transcript is only the starting point. More salient is the way the production, conceived and directed by Tina Satter, views the document through an expressionistic lens, allowing Emily Davis, in a heartbreaking performance, to make words into windows on a world of interior terror.
2019 | Off-Broadway |
Vineyard Theatre Off-Broadway World Premiere Off-Broadway |
2019 | Off-Broadway |
Vineyard Theatre Off-Broadway Return Engagement Off-Broadway |
2021 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
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