Review Roundup: MTC's HEISENBERG Opens Off-Broadway

Manhattan Theatre Club's world premiere of Heisenberg, the new play by two-time Olivier Award winner Simon Stephens (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Punk Rock), directed by Drama Desk Award winner Mark Brokaw (The Lyons, How I Learned to Drive) starring Denis Arndt (The Night Alive at Geffen Playhouse, "The Practice") and Tony & Emmy Award winner Mary-Louise Parker (Proof, "Weeds") opens tonight, June 3, as part of MTC's 2014-15 season of The Studio at Stage II.

Amidst the bustle of a crowded London train station, Clare (Parker) spots Alex (Arndt), a much older man, and plants a kiss on his neck. This electric encounter thrusts these two strangers into a fascinating and life-changing game.

Let's see what the critics had to say...

Ben Brantley, The New York Times: ...theatergoers have learned that it's a mistake to underestimate Mr. Stephens, who has a way of making us feel anew the hidden, authentic pulse that keeps clichés alive...On its surface, it's a satisfyingly sentimental, life-affirming mating dance between two people who are so utterly dissimilar that of course they are made for each other. But if you choose to tune into the quieter frequencies of "Heisenberg," you'll detect the presence of a probing work that considers the multiplicity of alternatives that could shape our lives at every moment..."Heisenberg" is a portrait of a couple acting and reacting to each other...With a mix of austere focus and emotional fluidity, Mr. Arndt and Ms. Parker deliver every fractional response...Mr. Arndt brings a receptive dignity to Alex...He is also - unexpectedly (for us and for Georgie) - beguilingly sensual...Ms. Parker...is back on form...her aggressive, whimsical Georgie suggests that type coarsened by years adrift in a dangerous world...you can feel calculation vying with spontaneity in every breath she takes...Her performance, like Mr. Stephens's play, deserves to be attended to carefully.

Marilyn Stasio, Variety: Lucky for her, Georgie is played by Mary-Louise Parker, who has a rare gift for sympathetic portraits of the weirdos of the world...Her enthusiastic seduction has a transformative effect on Alex, cracking his protective shell and releasing feelings he's kept bottled up for years. Arndt, who has been carefully husbanding Alex's displays of emotion until now, allows him a rare sweet smile that's as revealing as any wordy soliloquy - and far more moving. But...this two-hander never shakes off the impression it gives of being an advanced writing exercise in character building...Helmer Mark Brokaw has directed the production as a delicate tone piece, keeping the stage dark and the movement to a minimum, the better to focus on the actors' faces...In the close quarters of MTC's studio theater, it's an education in acting craft to watch Georgie's volatile moods and turbulent thoughts play out in Parker's quicksilver performance. No wonder Alex was smitten.

Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter: Depicting the unlikely romance that blossoms between two lost souls, Heisenberg is a quirky comedy-drama that manages to live up to both adjectives...Much of its impact can also be credited to the two performers who fully inhabit their flawed characters with an intense emotional immediacy. Both actors deliver superlative turns...The voluble, profanity-spouting Georgie might have been merely irritating as played by another actress. But Parker, exhibiting a more weathered version of the sultry charm she unveiled a quarter-century ago in Prelude to a Kiss, makes her indeed captivating. And Arndt...is equally superb as the reclusive but still vital old man who's never married and conducts imaginary conversations with the sister who died when he was just a child. Under the pitch-perfect direction of Mark Brokaw...the two performers deliver deeply moving portrayals of these troubled figures, who despite all odds manage to find happiness together.

Adam Feldman, Time Out NY: In Heisenberg, Mary-Louise Parker plays an incandescent kook who may be a little crazy, which is to say she's totally in her wheelhouse. No other actor plays troubledness with such radiance...she's irresistible, which helps make sense of Simon Stephens's unusual romantic two-hander...What this has to do with Heisenberg-who is never mentioned, though scientific ideas are batted around obliquely-is anyone's guess. Something to do with being observed, maybe, or with notions of position and momentum? No matter: Uncertainty, for us as for Georgie and Alex, is part of the charm.

Elysa Gardner, USA Today: Stephens'...dialogue in Heisenberg...reveals two lonely people still trying to resolve old conflicts as they confront the new riddles posed by one another. Both have moved to London from other places: Alex is from Ireland, Georgie from New Jersey. They have suffered different kinds of loss and alienation, but their need to connect is a shared one, and Stephens takes a forgiving, ultimately uplifting view of their stumbles and their progress. The small, spare production, directed with wit and grace by Mark Brokaw, keeps both actors intensely in focus throughout. As she has done with other alluringly offbeat characters, Parker makes Georgie both seductive and irritating...Arndt's performance complements hers beautifully. His Alex is in ways just as mysterious as Georgie, a man whose strength and longing can sneak up on us as he's drawn out of his shell.

Joe Dziemianowicz, New York Daily News: Human connections, natural, mysterious and elusive things, are what this modestly intriguing story is all about...Who are the people in our lives, and what do they want? Uncertainty principle, indeed. Parker, an Emmy and Tony winner, employs her signature quirks in a character who's charming, slippery and annoying...It's a tricky part, and Parker hasn't quite found the key to make it appear as if she's not working hard at playing a character. Arndt...brings a warm, laid-back humanity. Alex is a butcher who thinks like a philosopher. Over a series of relatively short scenes separated by blackouts and a bell sounding, the actors share a sturdy rapport. They frequently move furniture, but seldom us.

Elisabeth Vincentelli, New York Post: Mary-Louise Parker is the only reason to see "Heisenberg." The play's flimsy and contrived, but it provides the chance to experience her peculiar pull...Georgie aggressively pursues a stranger named Alex (Denis Arndt) in a train station. She pulls out all the stops, shamelessly flirting and batting her eyelashes while the Englishman looks puzzled by the attention...The character tries too hard, and Parker does, too, doing her self-consciously adorable aging waif thing...Stephens is quite popular these days, but his adaptations of existing material, such as "Curious Incident," are much better than original fare like this one...Here we're meant to believe and even care about the unlikely relationship between Georgie and Alex. The show would be completely inconsequential - and preposterous - without the credibly sweet rapport Parker and Arndt establish under Mark Brokaw's economical direction...Plausibility and cutesy-ness be damned: Just enjoy the star pyrotechnics.

Brendan Lemon, Financial Times: Ostensibly, Heisenberg concerns how the pair's unpromising meeting evolves into a romance. In reality, Heisenberg involves how we feel about watching Arndt and Parker for 85 interval-less minutes...There is an occasional, title-alluding nod to the uncertainty of human interaction and other semi-scientific matters. But most of the dialogue consists of Georgie prodding Alex out of the routine he has followed for decades...Parker is an actor as often resistible as irresistible...Georgie falls into the former...the character would be hard to credit even in a more emotionally sympathetic interpretation. Parker makes her alternately faux-adorable and soapbox-opinionated. All I will say about Parker's co-star, Arndt, is: superb. Stephens is fortunate in his directors...here, Mark Brokaw, whose staging always struck me as just right, even when the play seemed less so.

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