Read our review of Pre-Existing Condition off Broadway, a return engagement of Marin Ireland’s 2024 play currently starring Lupita Nyong’o and featuring a rotating cast of stars throughout the run.
The ripple effects of intimate partner violence can be fertile artistic territory, both articulating the fraught experiences of individuals and exploring broader themes like historical cycles of violence, failing social and legal support systems, nonlinear paths to healing, and the perpetuation of shame. Works ranging from The Color Purple to A Streetcar Named Desire to I, Tonya exhibit the spiky, sometimes harrowing impact of how trauma rattles the nervous system, and they do so through richly textured dramatic worlds.
It’s a shame, then, that Marin Ireland’s play Pre-Existing Condition, which tracks the turbulent period of time after a woman (Lupita N’yongo) leaves her abusive boyfriend, feels staid and lacking as a piece of theatre. Though there are occasional scenes of substance and personality, Pre-Existing Condition, despite its good-faith earnestness, provides little depth to its theatrical world.
The woman, named only in the script as “A,” seeks legal counsel, joins group therapy, and tentatively tells friends. Nyong’o drifts from scene to scene, encountering a poker hand’s worth of archetypes: the sympathetic therapist, the unhelpful lawyer, the mother she can’t tell, the glib friend who sides with the ex, the sincerely good guy. There’s a frustrating lack of idiosyncrasy in everyone’s line deliveries — the mental health and legal professionals, in particular, speak like living infographics — though Sarah Steele does her best to make her dialogue distinctive in multiple roles.
As for the protagonist, the play seems disinclined to give A much characterization outside of the incident; we don’t even learn her job. Nyong’o is best at portraying A’s moments of softness and subtle ambivalence, but she struggles to convey the play’s more intense emotions despite clear effort.
There are select moments — like when A and a kind male friend (Greg Keller) listen to ignored voicemails, or when she and an old acquaintance discuss what success means — where the play’s ambition and execution are more tantalizingly close. You can imagine a more defined set of people and circumstances that are more than tenuously connected. There’s thematic potential to the notion that A is unmoored, but the play shouldn’t be, too.
Pre-Existing Condition summary
A woman known only as A struggles to make sense of her life after she leaves her boyfriend in the aftermath of a domestic-violence incident, Through conversations with friends, family members, professionals, and more, we see A’s tumult in attempting to heal from her experience and get closure.
The role of A will be played by a rotating cast throughout Pre-Existing Condition’s run. Lupita Nyong’o performs through September 26, followed by Phillipa Soo (September 28 – October 17), Susannah Flood (October 18 – November 7), Hari Nef (November 9-28), Edie Falco (November 30 – December 19), and Whitney White (December 21 – January 8). Dael Orlandersmith, Sarah Steele, and Greg Keller complete the cast, playing multiple roles each.
Pre-Existing Condition previously premiered off Broadway in summer 2024.
What to expect at Pre-Existing Condition
Pre-Existing Condition runs approximately 80 minutes with no intermission. The play features discussions of intimate partner violence and its emotional and psychological effects, but it does not feature any staged violence or graphic descriptions of it.
Cate McCrea’s set recalls a church basement or nondescript meeting space for a help group, with fluorescent lights hanging above and a water cooler tucked in a left corner. Dael Orlandersmith and Sarah Steele often face toward the audience as if we, too, are part of the group.
What audiences are saying about Pre-Existing Condition
“Intense story with spectacular performances in all of the roles.” – Show-Score user GBracken
“The subject matter may be triggering for some, but it was so respectfully and emotionally done that it’s worth seeing even if it triggers you.” – Kelly H on Show-Score
“As a survivor of [domestic violence] I was worried this might upset me, but it had the opposite effect. Lupita was outstanding, and Greg provided a perfect amount of humor and sweetness to his many roles, whilst Dael made me actually believe that at times we were meant to participate in the group and gave me hope and strength, and Sarah played her roles to perfection without triggering me. I highly recommend this play. Thank you all so much. You cannot imagine how badly I needed to see this.” – Show-Score user Mary M
Read more audience reviews of Pre-Existing Condition on Show-Score.
Who should see Pre-Existing Condition
Fans of theatre stalwart Maria Dizzia, who acted excellently in What We Did Before Our Moth Days, will want to see her in the director’s chair here.
Fans of playwright Marin Ireland, also primarily known as an actor (Rachel Getting Married, Y: The Last Man, The Umbrella Academy, Reasons to Be Pretty), will want to experience her very personal creation.
Lupita Nyong’o is radiant and, in the play’s quieter and more everyday moments, lovely and injects some nice humor into the show.
Learn more about Pre-Existing Condition off Broadway
Pre-Existing Condition’s sincerity and deeply personal sensibility doesn’t quite make up for its roughly sketched characters and world. Its ambitions to engage with domestic abuse and its complicated reverberations are intriguing, but a lack of specificity, especially in its protagonist, renders the play sadly underdeveloped.
Photo credit: Pre-Existing Condition off Broadway. (Photos by Jessica Kourkounis)