Heisenberg NYC Reviews and Tickets

"Mary-Louise Parker and Denis Arndt return as a pair of misfits who somehow manage to connect despite being worlds apart...Written by Simon Stephens and so beautifully performed, what transpires between them bears out Heisenberg’s famed uncertainty principle in the flesh. Or put another way, opposites do attract...What seems so incredibly simplistic somehow registers as one of the most emotionally complex relationships you’re likely to witness on stage or in real life."
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"In most narratives, the age difference alone would disqualify Georgie and Alex from potential romance. But Stephens plays by his own rules in this story...There's nothing to even vaguely suggest where we might be headed, but Parker and Arndt keep us deeply invested in each of their erratic movements...Stephens wraps the play in this metaphor of 'uncertainty'...He draws this parallel with a light enough hand that Georgie and Alex remain human beings and not mouthpieces for philosophical theory."
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"A terrifically matched pair of actors playing a questionably matched pair of lovers...'Heisenberg' plays off the standard romantic comedy pairing of an offbeat, eccentric young woman who fascinates a straight-laced, conservative older man, though Stephens injects it with more honesty and heart than punch lines...'Heisenberg' may seem somewhat thin and whimsical on the surface, but in the hands of two fine actors it's a touching and satisfying venture."
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"The trick lies in making the woman equally lovable and bizarre, and also creating some kind of quirky chemistry between her and the man. On these grounds, 'Heisenberg' constitutes a thoroughly fizzled science experiment...This is the first romantic comedy in recent memory that leaves one actively rooting for the couple not to get together. Then again, 'Heisenberg' is neither romantic nor especially funny."
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"Stephens pushes the extent of unknowability pretty far, and doesn't always drop the dramatic anchor he needs to keep it on message. Georgie's behavior is a flood of overstatement that is not properly dammed in Parker's performance...Arndt, though, plays his part superbly...The evening becomes more about the artifice of its creation than the relationship it documents, and despite its intriguing, understated premise, it just isn't written well enough to function in that capacity."
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"With a set consisting of just a couple of tables and chairs the only glitter in 'Heisenberg' comes from the acting and that's certainly in good hands here. The part of Georgie seems written to order for Mary-Louise Parker's singular affinity for somewhat lost, almost child-like characters. Denis Arndt's Alex at first seems mostly a sounding board for Parker's Georgie...But though Parker has the showier role, Arndt quickly becomes a much more significant and endearing presence."
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“Simon Stephens, whose ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ recently amazed audiences with its razor-sharp take on the inner workings of an autistic boy, is back with ‘Heisenberg’, a two-hander that examines the relationship between a forty-something woman and a seventy-something man, written with the same consummate insight into the foibles of human beings, minus that play’s technical wizardry, here replaced by a sharp ear and eye for the nuances of neediness.”
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"'Heisenberg' isn’t a play that relies on over-the-top theatrical effects. It doesn’t crutch itself on snazzy scene changes; it doesn’t showcase the most impressive lighting or sound design ever devised for the theatre. Instead, it returns our attention to what should be most important to us—simple, beautiful, human connection. Director Mark Brokaw has given two gifted actors the freedom to take the most basic stage setup and completely capture our imagination."
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