Everything You Need to Know About “Are You Now or Have You Ever Been,” Coming to New York City Center Stage I

A chilling piece of American theatre history is heading back into the spotlight.

Are You Now or Have You Ever Been, Eric Bentley’s searing docudrama about the House Un-American Activities Committee’s investigation of show business, is coming to New York City Center Stage I directed by Tony Award winner Anna D. Shapiro. The play revisits one of the most infamous chapters in American cultural history, when artists, actors, writers, directors, and performers were asked to defend their loyalty, reveal their politics, and, in many cases, name names.

The title comes from the question that became synonymous with the era: “Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist Party?”

What is Are You Now or Have You Ever Been about?

The play examines the investigation of show business by the House Un-American Activities Committee from 1947 to 1956, a period when Hollywood and the American theatre world were pulled into a national panic over suspected Communist influence. It centers on seventeen witnesses, including Ring Lardner Jr., Larry Parks, Sterling Hayden, José Ferrer, Abe Burrows, Elia Kazan, Jerome Robbins, Lillian Hellman, Arthur Miller, and Paul Robeson.

Rather than fictionalize the events, Bentley assembled the drama directly from testimony and public record. In other words, the drama is not “inspired by” history, it is history, staged with a courtroom’s tension and a thriller’s moral pressure.

Why does it matter now?

It matters because the question at the center of the play has never really gone away.

Are You Now or Have You Ever Been is about censorship, fear, public shaming, political pressure, and the price of survival. It asks what people do when their careers, reputations, and livelihoods are placed on the line. Do they stay silent? Do they resist? Do they cooperate? Do they sacrifice someone else to save themselves?

The play’s most powerful moments come from artists trying to hold onto their conscience under pressure. Arthur Miller, asked to name people from meetings he had attended, says, “My conscience will not permit me to use the name of another person.” The House of Representatives later found him in contempt of Congress.

Lillian Hellman’s statement is another of the play’s defining moments. In her letter to the Committee, she writes that she cannot and will not “cut my conscience to fit this year’s fashions,” refusing to hurt others in order to save herself.

That is the play in one sentence: conscience under interrogation.

Who wrote it?

Are You Now or Have You Ever Been was written by Eric Bentley, the influential critic, scholar, translator, and playwright. Bentley was born in England in 1916, became an American citizen in 1948, was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1998, and received a gold medal from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2011.

Bentley was one of the great theatrical minds of the 20th century, and this play remains one of his most direct, devastating works.

Has the play been seen in New York before?

Yes. Are You Now or Have You Ever Been was previously seen Off Broadway in 1978 and on Broadway in 1979, directed by John Bettenbender.

Its return to New York City for the first time in nearly 50 years gives audiences a fresh chance to experience a piece that feels both historical and alarmingly immediate.

Where is it playing?

The production is coming to New York City Center Stage I. The venue has long been associated with intimate Off Broadway theatre. That intimacy matters because this play relies on proximity. The closer the room, the sharper the questions land.

What kind of play is it?

Think courtroom drama meets political thriller meets documentary theater.

There are no easy heroes. The play doesn’t simply divide people into brave resisters and cowardly informers, it shows how pressure works, how language can be twisted, and how reputations can be destroyed by implication.

One of the most haunting sections comes from Larry Parks, who pleads not to be forced into the choice of contempt or becoming an informer. He says he does not want to “crawl through the mud,” asking the Committee not to force him to name names. Eventually, (spoiler alert!) under closed-session pressure, he does.

That’s what makes the piece so powerful: it doesn’t let the audience sit comfortably above history. It asks: what would you do?

Who’s starring in it?

The cast includes New York theatre stalwarts: Brooks Ashmanskas, Frederick Weller, Steven Boyer, Jason Babinsky, Adam Kantor, and Michael McKean.

In a unique twist, the actors playing those testifying before Congress are a rotating list of stars of stage and screen, including David Krumholtz, Andrew McCarthy, Jay O. Sanders, Sally Murphy, Billy Eugene Jones, Steven Pasquale, Tom Sadoski, Happy Lennix, TR Knight, Bob Odenkirk, Molly Ringwald, Santino Fontana, and more to be announced.

Why should theatre fans pay attention?

This is theatre about theatre people. The witnesses are writers, actors, directors, choreographers, and performers who helped shape American culture.

The play also exposes how deeply politics and entertainment have always been intertwined. The blacklist was an artistic rupture: careers ended, friendships shattered, movies and plays altered. Silence was a survival strategy, and the activity (or lack thereof) still impacts the entertainment industry to this day.

What is the big takeaway?

Are You Now or Have You Ever Been is about the cost of fear in public life. It asks what happens when patriotism becomes a performance, when accusation becomes punishment, and when artists are forced to choose between their careers and their conscience.

At New York City Center Stage I, the play arrives as both a history lesson and a warning flare. It’s a reminder that democracy is not only tested in elections and courtrooms; sometimes, it’s tested in a chair, under lights, with one question:

Are you now, or have you ever been?

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