The Baroness - Isak Dinesen's Final Affair NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (71)
See it if You enjoy reading Isak Dinesen( Karen Blixen) You enjoy fine performances and thought-provoking topics
Don't see it if You like a lot of action You dislike May-December relationships
See it if You want to see a great performance by Broadway's Dee Pelletier. If you've wondered what happened to Karen Blixen after "Out of Africa."
Don't see it if You're allergic to smoke or have health issues exacerbated by smoke.Way too much unnecessary smoking. What's wrong with e-cig?Needs editing!
See it if you want to see a well acted drama based on the story of Isak Dinesen and her last mentee. Keep count of the end of scene glasses.
Don't see it if you don't like drama and you don't like smelling incense that is substituted for cigarette smoke during the show.
See it if A complex play about Karen Blixen involving themes of love, loss and commitment. A bit slow with the first act lasting 90 min.
Don't see it if If you enjoy light musicals or dramas with a simple message.
See it if You want to see good acting with a biography based plot with lots of details. Think Mrs Robinson meets Denmark.
Don't see it if You don't like women seducing younger men.
See it if You want to see a drama, fully developed with rich characters, great acting, lovely costumes and interesting set and lighting.
Don't see it if You want a light fast paced evening.
See it if You are interested in Isak Dinesen and enjoy biographical plays. The lead was quite good, but some of the other acting was rather uneven.
Don't see it if You don't enjoy historical plays, or plays which incorporate poetry into the scenes.
See it if you like Isak Dinesen's work. Complex study of her as a mentor to a younger writer.
Don't see it if you aren't a fan of Blixen and historical drama
Critic Reviews (15)
"A strange work...Anyone expecting the subtitle with the word 'Affair' to indicate some hot sex between an older woman and the young poet and writer will not find any such thing depicted...Under the direction of Hegland, Pelletier gives a go-for-broke performance that dominates the stage...The play would gain from shortening (it is two hours plus an intermission), but the performances hold attention, especially that of Pelletier in what amounts to a showcase role for her."
Read more
"A compelling, if lead-driven play. Blixen is consistently intriguing, the story credible. History is deftly embedded rather than crammed in as exposition...One of the ugliest, most inappropriate sets I’ve ever seen...Hegland splendidly manifests his Baroness in all respects...Acting is a mixed bag...Pelletier’s embodiment of the Baroness is pithy. Her invaluable decisions about Blixen serve voice, posture, timing, and attitude creating an intense, cohesive woman."
Read more
“Dee Pelletier is pulling off a brilliant turn as Karen Blixen in ‘The Baroness, Isak Dinesen's Final Affair’ at the Clurman Theater. The story sets out to detail the final mentor relationship / love affair of Blixen's life with a young poet played by Conrad Ardelius. It tells their true story as it delivers a symposium on art, love, dedication and desire. It is an inspiring show for the creator or lover of art in all forms.”
Read more
“The play chronicles the intense and strange relationship between the young, Thorkild Bjornvig, and the famous, Baroness Karen Blixen (known in the United States by the pseudonym Isak Dinesen), who takes a special interest in his ‘career’ after he published his collection of poems in 1947. Many aspects of this play were revealing and powerful, especially regarding the creative process which Blixen states ‘takes courage.’ I recommend it.”
Read more
“The production telegraphs the sinister nature of this relationship, and spells out the Greek inevitability of the poet’s fall...Ardelius plays a mannerly, almost wooden Adonis, hoping to get his groove back. Pelletier is a smokey-eyed necromancer, gliding through a script that wanders while trying to connect the historical dots...The play is a series of conversations that explore what it takes to be an artist, and what a lifetime of creativity yields."
Read more
"Both Pelletier and Ardelius are ideally cast in their roles...But there is an imbalance here in the writing. The first act lasts for an hour and a half, and so all the scenes where Blixen is yelling at or manipulating Bjørnvig get tiring...Yet this look at Blixen’s last great platonic love affair is studded with some of the best observations from her stories and interviews, and these lines, as delivered by Pelletier, have a romantic force that lingers."
Read more
"Krebs’ free-ranging interpretation of Bjørnvig and Blixen’s relationship is a charged, if occasionally uneven, treatment of ambition, love, literature, and pain…This plays out best in moments of intense emotion, where Krebs has wrought some fine dialogue…Their sexual chemistry is surprisingly palpable, and Hegland somehow imbues a sense of will-they-or-won’t-they into the narrative in spite of Blixen’s weltering temper, their age difference and their continual clash of egos."
Read more