Swing State Tickets

Evenings on the prairie are relatively quiet for Peg, a recently widowed woman in rural Wisconsin who still cooks for two. Which doesn’t go to waste whenever Ryan, a dear friend with a troubled past, pays her a visit. However, after noticing her husband’s toolbox is missing, she places a call to the local authorities—unwittingly setting off a series of events that will forever reverberate through the small community. In a divided country where the lines separating family, friend, and foe have been further blurred in the wake of a global pandemic, Tony Award® winner Robert Falls and Pulitzer Prize finalist Rebecca Gilman masterfully unweave a complex, humanistic yarn the Chicago Sun-Times calls "an engrossing work of intense melancholy, filled with sympathy for its characters, and for the country."

Please be advised that this production includes loud gunshots.

Swing by the Minetta Lane Theatre for the New York premiere of Swing State, Rebecca Gilman's critically acclaimed play directed by Robert Falls. Get Swing State tickets on TodayTix.

The Swing State play takes place in rural Wisconsin, and the action kicks off when the widowed Peg gets a visit from her friend and neighbor Ryan, a kind man who happens to have a history of crime and addiction. Separately, a theft occurs at her house — and the play becomes an exploration of how a community turns on perceived outsiders to preserve their lifestyle and their views.

Swing State premiered at Chicago's Goodman Theatre in fall 2022, also with Falls directing. The New York production marks Gilman's first Off-Broadway premiere since 2015's Desire. Her other Off-Broadway plays, in a career spanning more than 25 years, include The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, Blue Surge, and The Glory of Living. She is notable for being the first American playwright to win the Evening Standard Award for British theatre.

Get tickets to Swing State in New York on TodayTix now.

What to Watch For

• The entire four-person cast of the Goodman production will also star in Swing State off Broadway, including Mary Beth Fisher, who has starred in multiple previous Gilman plays including Boy Gets Girl and Spinning Into Butter.
• The play's title can be interpreted with a double meaning. It can refer to the political definition of a swing state — one that doesn't reliably vote Democrat or Republican in elections, but switches — or a state of emotional flux or "swing."
• Audible Theater produces Swing State, so the play will be recorded and released as an audio drama after the staged run.