Eric Bentley’s ARE YOU NOW OR HAVE YOU EVER BEEN to Have Off-Broadway Run

 Tickets are now available for a new production of Eric Bentley’s 1972 play, Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been, beginning a limited 15-week engagement at New York City Center Stage (i) on Tuesday, June 2, 2026. 

 This summer, in a strictly limited engagement, a rotating cast will come together for a timely revival of  Eric Bentley’s Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been. This docudrama drops you into the tense world of the 1940s House Committee on Un-American Activities hearings, where fame offered no protection and political pressure  could end a career. 

Using only the original transcripts, the play features the words of artists like Arthur Miller, Jerome Robbins, Paul Robeson,  Elia Kazan, Lillian Hellman, Abe Burrows, and Lionel Stander as they faced impossible choices: defend their integrity,  protect their careers, or betray their peers. And yet the probing, chilling questions posed by the committee are as powerful  as the testimonies themselves, revealing a climate of intimidation and moral conflict that resonates far beyond its time.  

 Begins June 2nd at New York City Center Stage 1 for 15 weeks only.  The production will be directed by Tony Award-winning director Anna D. Shapiro (Eureka Day, The Minutes, August: Osage  County, The Motherf**ker with the Hat) and feature a rotating cast of artists throughout its run. Casting to be announced  soon. 

The design team for this production includes Andrew Boyce (Scenic Designer), Johanna Pan (Costume Designer), Donald  Holder (Lighting Designer), Milbo Music (Sound Designer), and Brittany Bland (Projections Designer).  

Throughout his career, Bentley wrote extensively on drama and performance with influential works including the  landmark 1946 book The Playwright as Thinker, which helped define modern theater criticism.