Two police officers at a kitchen table, and a family leaning in for news. Manhattan Theatre Club has released the first production photos of The Unbelievers, Nick Payne’s play about a teenager who disappears, now in previews at New York City Center Stage I ahead of its November 5 opening.
The pictures, shot by Matthew Murphy, are all lamplight and wood: a warm yellow living room, an upright piano, a long table with a single candle burning on it. Lauren Ambrose is at the center of almost every frame as Miriam Wright, a mother whose teenage son has vanished. Tom Riley plays her husband, David.
Payne’s play picks up the story across the years in which the disappearance stays unsolved, as a blended family learns, one ordinary day at a time, how to keep going. MTC bills it as a play about hope, and one with real laughs in it.
This is the American premiere. The Unbelievers was first seen at London’s Royal Court Theatre in October 2025, in a staging by Marianne Elliott. The New York production is directed by Knud Adams, the director of the Pulitzer Prize winners English and Primary Trust, making his MTC debut. Payne, a Tony and Olivier nominee, is back at the company that gave his Constellations its American premiere in 2015 and Incognito its own in 2016.
Ambrose and Riley lead a company of nine. With them are Jaspal Binning (PC Jay Shah/Anil Singh), Brittany Bradford (PC Angela Fisher/Mia Olsson), Jack DiFalco (Benjamin), Marjan Neshat (DC Elizabeth Hawkins/Lorraine), Nina Ross (Nancy Khoury), Hadi Tabbal (Rev. Karl Khoury) and Elizabeth Yeoman (Margaret Wright). All nine are making their MTC debuts.
Sets are by Paul Steinberg, costumes by Enver Chakartash, lighting by Masha Tsimring and sound by Sinan Refik Zafar. Will Butler wrote the original songs, Cookie Jordan designed the hair and Deborah Hecht is the dialect and vocal coach. Casting is by Caparelliotis Casting and Kelly Gillespie.
The Unbelievers began previews on Tuesday, October 13, and opens on Thursday, November 5, at New York City Center Stage I, 131 West 55th Street. Tickets are on sale now through our The Unbelievers page.
