"Though it offers choice examples of the off-kilter lyricism that is Mr. Greenberg’s signature, 'The Babylon Line' feels like a gifted writer’s notebook, stuffed with beguiling phrases and ideas still waiting to cohere into a compelling shape...The students are embodied by a mouthwatering cast, directed a bit fuzzily by Terry Kinney...Meta meanderings are typical of 'The Babylon Line'...While the most far-fetched of these are entertaining, they never take on much urgency."
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"'The Babylon Line' is by Richard Greenberg; barbed repartee, shiny epigrams, and baroque arias of loss and longing all come with the territory...Director Terry Kinney steers a fine cast to a nice balance of whimsy and wistfulness...It’s the plotting and momentum of the second act in which things grow fuzzy and attenuated...The digressive wrapping up of narrative threads in the last 20 minutes unfolds less like compelling drama and more like dutiful housekeeping."
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"A fatally mild production…Some of Greenberg's best plays mix disparate modes expertly, whether alternating narration and action or contrasting different versions of history. Both tactics are attempted here, but fall flat because the thing remembered is so banal…What is supposed to be the main story is a nonstarter, in part because we know that Aaron will never respond to Joan’s outrageous propositioning and in part because Radnor and Reaser cannot find anything convincing to play."
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"Fine as Josh Radnor and Elizabeth Reaser are, my focus was pulled elsewhere in this provocative but maddening play...Were I more generous of spirit, I would speculate that this is the playwright’s intention, to bury Aaron in his failure. Instead, it’s where I lost interest in 'The Babylon Line,' and I felt that Greenberg did as well, since the ending — the several endings — are a muddle of inconclusiveness."
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"One of those modest little gems that contains sparks of white light if you look hard enough…This is the kind of unpretentious but thought-provoking play that Lincoln Center always does to perfection…Kinney, who has done terrific work on this show, takes care to keep the chemistry between Aaron and Joan on the boil. But for sheer eccentricity and bittersweet feeling, what really resonates are the lives of all of these characters—especially the secret lives that emerge in their writing."
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"What a beguiling and unpredictable play...While Greenberg could be criticized for being too discursive, that ends up being part of the play's charm, as stories and revelations about each character shed a different light on them...Kinney and his superb cast are attuned to the silent undercurrents of Greenberg's writing as much as the sly flourishes of wit and cruelty and the elegant streams of prose-like dialogue, making 'The Babylon Line' an idiosyncratic pleasure."
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"The intimate nature of the small amphitheater-style setup lends itself nicely to Greenberg’s storytelling; when Radnor’s character breaks the fourth wall, it feels like a personal appeal...Aaron's infatuation with Joan feels a little forced — their chemistry doesn’t quite support their near-instant attraction. Luckily, that’s not an issue for the rest of the cast...The quiet, funny script resonates with the evergreen themes of community, desire, and self-discovery. It’s a memorable ride."
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"Greenberg is clearly interested in endings, and he gives us a grand one in this thoughtful and sympathetic drama...Director Terry Kinney crafts potentially explosive moments with care and restraint, allowing the tension in the room to build slowly and surely until we are fully invested...Greenberg sacrifices the tragedy of the moment for the comedy of the long perspective — and we are grateful to him for it."
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