2019/2020
  • 2022/2023
  • 2021/2022
  • 2020/2021 Digital Season
  • 2019/2020
  • 2018/2019
  • 2017/2018
  • 2016/2017
  • 2015/2016
  • 2014/2015
  • 2013/2014
  • 2012/2013
  • 2011-1985
Select Show
  • I’m Revolting
  • The Far Country
  • Cornelia Street
  • Elyria
  • A Simulacrum
  • Days of Wine and Roses
  • Atlantic For Kids: Heart Strings
Select Show
  • The Last of the Love Letters
  • Kimberly Akimbo
  • Shhhh
  • English
  • The Bedwetter
Select Show
  • The Fall Reunion Reading Series: Skeleton Crew
  • The Fall Reunion Reading Series: Guards at the Taj
  • African Caribbean MixFest 2021
  • Atlantic for Kids: And in This Corner: Cassius Clay
  • Atlantic for Kids: She Persisted, The Musical (Virtual Production)
A Play is a Poem
  • Sunday
  • Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven
  • Paris
  • Anatomy of a Suicide
  • A Play is a Poem
  • Atlantic for Kids: The Big One-Oh!
  • Atlantic for Kids: She Persisted, The Musical
Select Show
  • Fireflies
  • Blue Ridge
  • Eddie and Dave
  • The Mother
  • Nomad Motel
  • The Secret Life of Bees
  • Atlantic for Kids: Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach
  • Atlantic for Kids: Last Stop on Market Street
Select Show
  • On the Shore of the Wide World
  • Describe the Night
  • The Homecoming Queen
  • Hangmen
  • The Great Leap
  • This Ain’t No Disco
  • Atlantic for Kids: Polkadots: The Cool Kids Musical
  • Atlantic for Kids: This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing
Select Show
  • The Band’s Visit
  • Marie and Rosetta
  • Tell Hector I Miss Him
  • The Penitent
  • Derren Brown: Secret
  • Animal
  • Atlantic for Kids: 1001 Nights: A Love Story about Loving Stories
  • Atlantic for Kids: Wonderland: Alice’s Rock & Roll Adventure
Select Show
  • Cloud Nine
  • These Paper Bullets!
  • Hold on to Me Darling
  • Skeleton Crew
  • The Purple Lights of Joppa Illinois
  • Atlantic for Kids: The Velveteen Rabbit
  • Atlantic for Kids: The Pirate La Dee Da
Select Show
  • Found
  • Dying for It
  • I’m Gonna Pray for You So Hard
  • Posterity
  • Guards at the Taj
  • Ghost Stories
  • Atlantic for Kids: Ivy + Bean: The Musical
  • Atlantic for Kids: Camp Kappawanna
Select Show
  • Women or Nothing
  • The Night Alive
  • The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
  • The Threepenny Opera
  • Between Riverside and Crazy
  • Our New Girl
  • Atlantic for Kids: Tilly the Trickster
  • Atlantic for Kids: Mr. Chickee’s Funny Money
Select Show
  • Harper Regan
  • What Rhymes with America
  • The Jammer
  • The Lying Lesson
  • 3 Kinds of Exile
  • Good Television
  • Atlantic For Kids: Jackie and Me
  • Atlantic for Kids: The Stinky Cheese Man And Other Fairly Stupid Tales
Select Show
  • Archive Coming Soon

A Play is a Poem

By Ethan Coen
Directed by Neil Pepe

Atlantic Stage 2

Postponed until further notice


If the audience laughs, it’s a comedy. If they nod with new understanding, it’s a drama. If they laugh and nod but can’t say why it’s funny or what they’ve understood, it might be A Play is a Poem, the new collection of one-acts by Academy Award winner Ethan Coen.

More Info

The hillbilly hollows of Appalachia, the executive suites of Hollywood, a New York tenement apartment, a magnolia-scented gazebo in Natchez, Mississippi—an eccentric look at life across America directed by Atlantic Artistic Director Neil Pepe.

Please note: The status of the remainder of our 2019/2020 season remains unclear at this time. A Play is a Poem was scheduled to begin performances on May 14, but it has become clear that it will be delayed. However, given the ever-changing circumstances and guidelines, we are not certain how long that delay will last. As soon as we have determined when it is safe to open the show, we will contact all ticket holders and make arrangements for ticket exchanges, donations, etc. In the meantime, we thank you for your patience and grace; it is much appreciated.

In association with Center Theatre Group.

A Play is a Poem is made possible, in part, by leadership support from The Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater.

“Sulfuric, satanic wit infuses Coen’s work.”

The New York Times