The reviews are in for The Unbelievers, Nick Payne’s play about a family in the years after a teenage son goes missing, which opened on Thursday, November 5, at Manhattan Theatre Club’s New York City Center – Stage I. It is the play’s American premiere, after its first production at London’s Royal Court, and Knud Adams, who staged English for MTC, directs Lauren Ambrose and Tom Riley. On one point the critics are united: Ambrose, as the mother who will not stop searching, is the reason to go. Where they divide is the play around her, which TheaterMania and New York Theatre Guide find moving and Time Out New York, New York Stage Review, Theater Pizzazz and Culture Sauce find uneven, its time-jumps contrived and its supporting characters thin.
The verdict: seven reviews in, two of them scored, both at 3 out of 5 (New York Stage Review and Culture Sauce), while Time Out New York marks it “Not recommended.” Every critic we could read singles out Lauren Ambrose. Rachel Graham at TheaterMania calls her unmissable, and Christian Lewis at New York Theatre Guide is as warm about the play as about its star; the rest admire Knud Adams’s seamless shifts between years but find the structure contrived and the family around Miriam underwritten. The Wall Street Journal reviewed it alongside 2:22 – A Ghost Story, behind its paywall.
What are critics saying about The Unbelievers?
TheaterMania
"An Unmissable Lauren Ambrose in The Unbelievers"
Reviewer: Rachel Graham
Graham is won over from the moment Paul Steinberg’s dining room turns into a church, with pews for part of the audience.
"…a virtuosic performance from Ambrose, who is utterly believable as a grieving but hopeful (or deluded?) parent."
She credits Ambrose with shaping unwieldy material into something larger, praises the lighting, the sound and the songs by Will Butler that Nina Ross performs, finds the role of Miriam’s first husband underpowered, and comes away moved.
Time Out New York
"Ambrose shines in Nick Payne's otherwise dull drama"
Reviewer: Billy McEntee
McEntee admires Ambrose’s tireless Miriam and Adams’s smooth production, in which scenes and years dissolve into one another.
"Her laserlike focus on finding the truth cuts through an otherwise stilted and overwrought play."
But he finds the secondary characters drawn in single notes and the near-two-hour running time a strain, and files the show under “Not recommended.”
New York Stage Review
"The Unbelievers: Drama Sometimes Tests Credulity"
Reviewer: David Finkle · 3 out of 5
Finkle is impatient with Payne’s scrambled chronology, which he finds contrived: a puzzle whose answer becomes obvious long before the play stops withholding it.
"The Unbelievers does boast one crowning achievement: the red-haired Lauren Ambrose."
He keeps his praise for Ambrose and for the way Adams steers a strong cast around her.
Culture Sauce
"‘The Unbelievers’ spotlights Lauren Ambrose in a bumpy drama about loss"
Reviewer: Thom Geier · 3 out of 5
Geier calls Miriam one of the meatiest stage roles of Ambrose’s career, and compares her refusal to accept her son’s loss to Medea in reverse.
"While The Unbelievers proves unconvincing as a domestic drama, it offers a riveting character study"
He likes the balance Adams strikes between levity and conflict, but finds the men in Miriam’s life thinly drawn and the family’s muted response to her climactic outburst hard to believe.
New York Theatre Guide
"haunting family drama will make you question your own beliefs"
Reviewer: Christian Lewis
Lewis is the warmest critic here, praising the way Payne sets comedy against pathos and Adams’s confident direction, which together put the audience inside Miriam’s disoriented mind.
"…the real showstopper is Ambrose, who embraces this juicy, difficult role and masterfully captures Miriam’s emotional swings."
He rates the whole ensemble highly, singling out Hadi Tabbal and Marjan Neshat, and says a late scene with Miriam’s daughter Margaret made him rethink everything that came before it.
Read Christian Lewis’s full review at New York Theatre Guide
Theater Pizzazz
"The Unbelievers Falls Short After Setting a High Bar"
Reviewer: Stuart Miller
Miller thinks the abrupt mid-scene time shifts are the play’s most emotionally astute device, and calls Ambrose excellent, her restless hands always reaching for something.
"…it seemed like it could have been a very good or even excellent play before settling into one that’s just fine."
He finds the rest of the family less developed, and less well served by the cast, and thinks Payne and Adams never quite settle the balance between comedy and tragedy.
Also reviewed by: The Wall Street Journal (Charles Isherwood, “‘The Unbelievers’ and ‘2:22—A Ghost Story’ Review: Off-Broadway Stages Turn Unsettling”), a joint review of both plays whose verdict sits behind a paywall.
Production photographs by Matthew Murphy.
We published the first look at The Unbelievers before opening night. For more of what the New York critics have been saying this week, read our roundups for The Verge at The Public Theater and We’ll See, Richard Nelson’s latest Apple Family play.
The Unbelievers runs at New York City Center – Stage I, 131 West 55th Street, through Sunday, November 29, 2026.
