Written by Jez Butterworth
Directed by Neil Pepe
Synopsis: British playwright Jez Butterworth (Mojo, The Night Heron) takes on domestic paranoia in his inimitably sly and incisive style in Parlour Song, which explores what happens when two ordinary people discover they hate who they have become. In his first American world premiere production, Butterworth reveals a fascinating world where all is not what it seems, when a demolitions expert suspects his wife is stealing from him.
NEW YORK TIMES:
"The considerable satisfactions of “Parlour Song” are not unlike those of a type of short story The New Yorker has been publishing since at least the 1950s: elegant, elliptical coming-of-consciousness tales that are usually set in the suburbs and usually feature adultery."
Read the whole review HERE.
NEW YORK POST:
"Despite the liveliness of having explanatory phrases ("Face it, it's a dead duck") and film sequences of collapsing buildings projected on a rear wall, there's little we haven't seen before."
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NEW YORK DAILY NEWS:
"Even when the plot takes a predictable turn (can you have three characters without some sort of triangle?), the story still manages to surprise. An 11th-hour revelation is as eerie as it is beautiful."
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THEATERMANIA:
"Fortunately, Butterworth mitigates the predictability of the situation, which indeed comes to pass, with enough intriguing variations to make it worth sitting attentively until the more or less expected ending arrives."
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VARIETY:
"If you could stop thinking about Pinter, Jez Butterworth's "Parlour Song" would seem like a wonderful play. The three-character domestic drama about the collapse of a marriage (Pinter ...) is finely written in lyrical prose studded with potent images (Pinter ...) and tinged with unspoken nuance (Pinter ...). But while it's well served by a superb cast helmed by Neil Pepe for the Atlantic Theater Company, the piece sinks into its own symbolism. And unlike some poem-like plays we could mention (Pinter ...), fails to generate its considerable internal tensions into the dynamism needed for shattering drama. "
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NEW YORK SUN:
"All the same, "Parlour Song" represents a newly sedate and ultimately deflating approach both for the author, previously one of England's edgier young exports, and for his frequent New York collaborator, the director Neil Pepe. "
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TIME OUT NY:
"But in Neil Pepe’s excellent production for Atlantic Theater Company, the actors shine through the midlife-crisis murk. Cake and Bauer adeptly convey the nervous balance of male friendship, and Mortimer is magnetic as Joy: a quietly desperate housewife teetering at the apex of a romantic triangle, with downward slopes at both sides. "
Read the whole review HERE.
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