The High Ground at Arena Stage

Washington Post - Somewhat Recommended

"...Davis and director Megan Sandberg-Zakian don’t make it particularly easy to engage deeply with the material, as some of the contrivances in the 75-minute production distract from the more lyrical, and harrowing, aspects of the play. Oddly, for example, the narrative is punctuated by the entrances and exits of stage managers who, with little flourishes, present the actors with such incidental props as scissors and toy guns. The stagy devices give the impression of notions that may have seemed like brainstorms in rehearsal but in performance feel overly artificial."

BroadwayWorld - Highly Recommended

"...There's something special happening in the Kogod Cradle Theatre at Arena Stage from now until early April. Nathan Alan Davis's world premiere play, THE HIGH GROUND, is much more than a play about the infamous 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. It's a thought-provoking piece forcing us to consider the cyclical nature of problematic race relations in this country; it's a statement on police brutality towards people of color; and, it's a mediation on love, family, and a sense of belonging in the world. It's a dense piece more poetic in style than a traditional play, which makes it all the more amazing that the play clocks in right around a tight 75 minutes."

DC Theater Arts - Highly Recommended

"...Playwright Nathan Alan Davis was among those who were shocked to learn of Tulsa’s tragedy. Commissioned by Arena Stage to write a new play for the theater’s Power Play cycle, Davis chose to explore the city’s grisliest chapter in The High Ground, a two-character, 70-minute meditation on love, loss, and the turbulence of unresolved racial animus, directed by Megan Sandberg-Zakian."