Socrates NYC Reviews and Tickets

“Nelson has crafted a portrait of one of Western philosophy’s most influential thinkers that’s as bracingly smart and frank as it is richly entertaining and accessible...Watching Stuhlberg, as the philosopher, engage and then interrogate his targets is like observing a master musician at work...Under Hughes’s astute, vigorous direction, the actor offers a devastating portrait of the toll of single-minded righteousness, not only on the protagonist but on his detractors and champions alike.”
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“Excellent as the entire ensemble is, keeping up with who plays who and when can be a challenge...Furthermore, provocative and well worth thinking about as all these ideas are, it's a lot to take in...All these philosophical interactions often get too far ahead of the audience, causing attention to stray for a bit...Stuhlbarg's attention-must-be-paid performance and director Hughes' assured, atmospheric staging keeps these brief lapses from full engagement to a minimum."
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“For all you philosophy junkies out there - and you know who you are -Tim Blake Nelson's world premiere Socrates at The Public Theater, the shining light of The Public's Onassis Festival, is a treasure trove of ideas bantered, tossed, shredded and otherwise analyzed by a stage-full of ancient Greeks, led by the title character played with dignity and passion by the phenomenal Michael Stuhlbarg (the father in the film ‘Call Me By Your Name’) and a cast of 16 mostly playing multiple roles.”
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“The mixture of the birth of democracy and ethics will leave modern audiences stung by the parallels 2500 years apart...what has come to be known as the 'Socratic method,' is illustrated effectively by playwright Nelson...The trick in dramatizing a philosophical topic, is how to make ideas active and urgent...There needs to be some generous pruning of the script...The trial and his death are dramatic indeed, and riveting. The lead up could be accomplished with more dispatch.”
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“The scenario is rich and dripping in clever twists and turns, exemplifying all that is good and strong in Nelson’s Athens...The production is filled to the brim with a cast of pros...Stuhlbarg’s thoughtful embodiment of the philosopher and the dynamic staging pulls us in, dragging us from passive observer to active participant and member of the democratic jury. It’s a wise shift...that makes this ‘Socrates’ alive and engaging, even when he is maddeningly annoying in his process of questioning.”
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“Stuhlbarg does a magnificent job in his performance as Socrates...The playwright is nothing if not diligent...But Nelson has insisted on peopling his play with a cast of 16, all but four of whom portray at least two characters...I’m not sure what any director could have done to...make them come alive, but...Hughes doesn’t do it. He seems to focus on creating attractive painterly tableaux...Blake’s play: Its value lies in the ideas it contains, rather than in the way they are presented on stage.”
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"An intelligent, well-acted, sometimes engrossing, sometimes sleep-inducing, three-hour talkathon…A didactic drama, dramatizing situations we once read of in Plato, and reminding us of why Socrates was such an iconic figure. But that doesn't mean it's not also something of a theatrical slog, and that its drama is more in the moment to moment exploration of ideas than in the pursuit of a traditional dramatic arc…One might ask Nelson, does it really have to be so damned long?"
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“Nelson, Hughes, Pask, Micoleau and even Zuber are all masters of the theater who know how to grab our attention — even for those who never read Plato...’Socrates’ settles into the expected series of debates...Nelson gives us the most famous suicide. It’s an extended moment in the theater, brilliantly acted in a way that places it outside time and yet opens a window to the very distant past. We witness a death that changed everything. You will want to be there.”
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