Therese Raquin NYC Reviews and Tickets

"We need to see why this woman forces her way out of one cage and into another, what she sees in herself that she's compelled to keep hidden. And that doesn't come through...Edmundson has done Zola proud in some ways...The broad strokes are here for a transporting portrait, but what supports them needs to plunge us into the depths and not water down all the essential heat."
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"While Edmundson’s adaptation is extremely faithful to the original Zola novel, that is part of the problem. In doing so, the new version requires a great many unnecessary set and scene changes which makes it much more like a television or film version than stageworthy...The Roundabout Theatre Company production feels literal but perfunctory. Film star Keira Knightley shows great stage presence but seems miscast in this role which swings from passivity to passion and back again."
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"The true to the novel approach does seem to cause the dialogue to prompt unintended laughs from the audience. Maybe to ease the unrelieved gloominess of the staging and narrative... I've always been a Zola fan, though this story of a seemingly emotionless young woman ready to burst into life has never been my favorite. Yet, the many variations of this old-fashioned morality tale do point to its durability. Therefore, if you've never seen it, you could do a lot worse than this handsome production."
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"Director Evan Cabnet directs this lurid tale as a thriller, pushing it to its Gothic, melodramatic extremes. The scenes are short and sharp, flying by at breakneck speed... Rarely are we treated to a full meal of melodrama in today’s theatre – one that’s calorie-rich in plot and character, and one that delivers the thrilling, chilling payoffs of a luridly satisfying story."
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"Brits Knightley and Ryan, who have the lion’s share of the stage time, generate few romantic sparks as they spout generic romantic platitudes. Neither has a commanding stage presence, but they also don’t have top-notch material to work with. Edmundson’s adaptation is filled with choppy scenes and grows increasingly melodramatic...What should be a steamy and heart-wrenching story of passion and torment becomes a rather dangerless liaison."
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"The director takes advantage of Knightley’s expressive face by fiddling around with cinematically inspired close-ups. But he also treats us to some awesome long shots. Beowulf Boritt’s sets are gorgeous...The sky and the water and the very walls feel like characters themselves, and contribute almost as much as Keira Knightley’s compelling performance to this magnetic story of a woman trapped in a loveless arrangement, who is set free, only to be trapped once more by guilt."
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"Director Evan Cabnet believes the difference between comedy and tragedy is that the former is played fast and the latter is played slowly-and not just slowly-slowly but at the sluggish pace of a snail crossing the pavement on a hot summer's day. At least, that's how he unfolds Helen Edmundson's adaptation of Emile Zola's irresistible 'Therese Raquin.'"
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"Perhaps a camera would lend emotional variety and substance to Knightley’s performance...The unremarkable Ryan does not bring her to blossom..It’s a story of sexual obsession – a horror story, a ghost story, curdled realism that gives way to melodrama. Or it might, if terror and desire were actually present here, if the working out of the plot felt inevitable rather than merely dutiful. 'I’m so tired,' Thérèse says at the play’s end. She spoke for so many of us."
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