First Night

The butchery steals the show in this skewering of the American dream

- NICK CURTIS

NICK CURTIS CHIFF THEATRE CRITIC

The Meat Kings! (Inc.) Of Brooklyn Heights Park Theatre

The butchers in this grimly effective workplace drama are at the cutting edge of the current, nightmarish version of the American dream.

Mostly firstor second-generation immigrants, and mostly ex-cons, they're struggling to get by in a world where family businesses like the 100-year-old shop in Williamsburg they work at are being squeezed out of existence.

Hannah Doran's script is schematic but urgent and impressively immersed in the grain of blue-collar New York life. The Meat Kings won the 2024 Papatango writing prize and is presented here in a tight, vividly acted in-the-round staging by the company's artistic director, George Turvey.