The Archbishop's Ceiling NYC Reviews and Tickets

64%

(49 Reviews)

Positive

45%

Mixed

45%

Negative

10%

Members say

Slow, Disappointing, Confusing, Thought-provoking, Great acting

About the Show

Arthur Miller's prescient 1978 play, never before seen in New York City, forces us to confront politics as theater, where blending the truth with lies is all part of the game.

4 old friends - writers, lovers, activists, celebrities - gather in a 16th century palace on one evening in a country where power is all and nothing can be trusted. Is someone listening to them? Can any of them speak freely? Can they resist the powerful forces that surround them and still maintain their art?

Member Reviews (49)

Great staging, Slow, Excruciating

See it if If your interested in a back wall Arthur Miller play. Acting is good with what they have to work with.

Don't see it if To long, to wordy. It drags on and becomes uninteresting. If you only like Arthur Miller's more popular works.

Great staging, Dated, Thought-provoking, Slow, Disappointing

See it if you must see all of Miller's work and for the the group of actors who are generally good on a great set.

Don't see it if you want some action - this all takes place over 100 minutes in the same place and is mostly talk among the five characters.

Dull, Thought-provoking, Disappointing, Slow

See it if ur a Miller completist & want to see his rarely-seen late play about Cold War espionage, paranoia, oppression & suppression of free speech.

Don't see it if u want to avoid an inert production of a generally didactic, verbose, familiar & dramatically unsatisfying play. Read more

Slow, Intense, Disappointing

See it if Actors deserve credit for trying. No bad seats at Urban Stages

Don't see it if It is not Arthur Miller at his best. A set exists. The comparison to today is a stretch

Too long, Disappointing, Slow

See it if Being spy on, watching your back for friends, family and government.

Don't see it if It moves slow and long. No intermission. A lot of just talking.

Slow, Relevant, Intelligent, Great writing, Dated

See it if Meeting of four minds is this unclaimed Miller play. Thinly-veiled of historical events drama with Miller perhaps sympathising w/ each view.

Don't see it if Difficult to not draw parallels to what's unfolding today w/ spying, which makes for a relevantly dated evening. Two hours w/o a break?

Not coherent arthur miller

See it if You're an Arthur Miller fan.

Don't see it if You want a good story that makes sense.

Excruciating, Disappointing

See it if you want to see a play by a popular playwright that has never been performed in New York City

Don't see it if You are excited to see what you think will be a hidden gem Read more

Critic Reviews (2)

"Performed without an intermission, Arthur Miller's 'The Archbishop's Ceiling' goes on too long for the few events that take place. The title gives away the play's one big secret and the other later revelations seem too little and too late when there is much more technologically advanced surveillance available today. As we wake up to reports of hacking on an almost daily basis, the play's relevance seems to have diminished greatly in the intervening years since it was written."
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"The play itself at times, can be brooding and uneasy. The goings-on can at times be sensual, even affectionate. But what brings a contemporaneous warmth to the play’s otherwise Cold War chill is the director himself and his precise direction to his ensemble casts deep appreciation for the personal poetics of individual power during times of political paranoia, hatred and deep contentment for those with opposing views. Very relevantly contemporary.”
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