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t
h e a t r e
The Unexpected
Man
r e v i e w s
A capsule review from the Talkin'
Broadway web site:
by Marjorie Shapiro
Midwinter's Theater
"The Unexpected Man" is a
new play by Yasmina Reza, staring Eileen Atkins and Alan Bates,
unquestionably two of the greatest actors today. This is
a thought provoking play about a pair of self-absorbed intellectuals.
Strangers who have a fleeting opportunity to connect, as they
travel in a passenger car of a train going from Paris to Frankfurt.
Will they have the courage to seize the moment? We are given
a wonderful opportunity to experience brilliant performances,
as well as ponder how difficult it is to mature emotionally,
even as we grow older and, supposedly, wiser.
 Variety
review, Charles Isherwood, 25 Oct 00
The alchemy of acting is on remarkable display Off Broadway...
where Eileen Atkins and Alan Bates are deftly and unobtrusively
turning Yasmina Reza's compact, cool and clever play...into an
evening of unlimited pleasure. It's the first real gem of the
new season, and it will be glittering for as long as its two
stars are happy to shed their complementary lights on it.
 The play's essential
theme is loneliness -- the difficulty of making deep and lasting
connections to other people, and the loss we feel when something
... mysteriously and suddenly separates us from people we've
cared for. It is also about the enduring companionship the works
of our favorite artists can provide...
[This entire
review is a fine analysis of the play and production.]
New Yorker review, Nancy Franklin, 6 Nov 00
I have seen Yasmina Reza's play "The Unexpected Man,"
now at the Promenade, described as "small," and if
that's what it is, it is small in the best way. Its pleasures
feel private and special -- you only want to tell certain
of your friends about it... Bates... radiates both the complacency
and the psychic unease appropriate to a literary lion who has
become the thorn in his own paw. ... Atkins, as always, both
shows and hides the range of her character's emotions with perfect,
masterly balance ... Reza's artful play may persuade you that
there is nothing of greater value in all the world than a brief
encounter between strangers on a train.... [full review]
USA Today review, Elysa Gardner, 26 Oct 00
... The Woman, an elegant and lively widow played by the masterful
Eileen Atkins, reminisces about old friends and flirtations and
wonders whether to let The Man know she is an admirer. The Man,
whom Alan Bates plays with a delicious acidity, whines about
his aging constitution and wonders why The Woman - who, unbeknownst
to him, has a copy of his latest book tucked away in her purse
-- hasn't brought along any reading material. ... The Unexpected
Man is ultimately an affirming, even comforting work... [full review]
New York Magazine review, John Simon, 6 Nov 00 issue:
...well acted by Alan Bates, and superlatively by Eileen
Atkins. He makes a mundane part tolerable; she gloriously transcends
it. The production values are good, and Matthew Warchus has directed
soundly....
New York Daily News review, Robert Domiguez, 27
Oct 00
... Tony-winning playwright Yasmina Reza ("Art") has
fashioned a fast-paced and witty psychological drama out of a
simple and familiar premise - strangers on a train... equally
strong portrayals of middle-aged strangers who engage in a mental
pas de deux on the long ride from Paris to Frankfurt... a
subtle, touching work about lonely people who allow only their
imaginations to run wild.
Newsday review, Linda Winer, 25 Oct 00
An Exquisite Encounter
...Instead of a major Broadway house for a prestige-star
play by the author of one of the few quasi-serious nonmusical
hits in recent memory, ...the work has been quietly booked into
Off-Broadway's Promenade Theatre. Why, we wondered, were producers
hedging their bets with a smaller, less risky venue? Could something
be not quite right with this long-awaited enticement? If not,
what took so long?
We are beyond pleased
to report that, moments into the 75 heart-stopping minutes of
"The Unexpected Man," such questions seem irrelevant.
What an exquisite brief encounter this is. In Matthew Warchus'
flinty and steadily probing production, the piece is also
more challenging, more subtle and more satisfying than "Art,"
that crafty little dazzler, which, despite the title and same
director, seemed more like theatrical brain candy from a gourmet
shop.
But we do understand
now the decision to go Off-Broadway. Despite the luminous performances
by Atkins and Bates, "Unexpected Man" occupies more
rarified air than was required by "Art." This play,
produced in her native Paris in 1995 and translated with Pinteresque
nuance by Christopher Hampton, is intimate yet deeply stirring,
dry but surprisingly juicy, unsentimental yet ultimately so full
of suspense and emotional payoff that we feel giddy from the
release. ... [full
review]
Wall Street Journal review, Amy Gamerman, 25 Oct 00
... Mr Bates and Ms Atkins make you hang on every
line... The play's atmosphere of dislocation is underscored
by Hugh Vanstone's shadowy lighting and Mark Thompson's chilly,
impressionistic set, a deconstructed train car ... The only scenery
on this voyage is the travelers' own reflections, and their feet
rest on a glass floor, which is laid over a bed of gravel bisected
by a railroad track. Throughout the play, you can't shake the
faint sense that the actors are floating. We're in an in-between
world, neither here nor there. It's telling that as Parsky struggles
to place his silent traveling companion, he reflects, "She's
a woman who's going somewhere. Not a woman who's coming back."
... Mr Bates is gratifyingly solid and bearish as this gruff,
self-absorbed writer... and while he's full of bluster, his performance
resonates with sly humor. When Martha finally pulls out her
copy of Parsky's book, the look on Mr Bates's face is worth a
hundred of Reza's words. "It's really too much,"
he thunders. "I knew she was an interesting woman!"
New York Post review, Donald Lyons, 25 Oct 00
... It's a typical Reza play, an investigation of a psychological
problem. In "Art," she looked at how a painting exposed
the dynamics of a friendship. Here, we see how the imagination
creates other people. The two actors are superb and precise;
Atkins and Bates seize every thought, every irony, every self-revealing
self concealment. They rise and circle each other - in their
imagination only, in course - and assess each other. ... An elegant,
witty little play full of sad observations about life and loneliness,
about the ways fantasies can shape encounters. ...beautifully
performed by the two players, who caress every morsel of humanity.
Washington Post review, Lloyd Rose, 25 Oct 00
... snappingly well acted by Alan Bates... and Eileen Atkins.
These two elegant old pros wrote the book on style...literate
in a way that's fun to listen to...
New York Times review, Ben Brantley, 25 Oct 00
... Oh, the pleasures of watching performers of this caliber
preen. Ms. Atkins and Mr. Bates bring to "The Unexpected
Man" an armory of precision weapons accumulated during lives
in the theater. So what if you've seen them deployed before?
(Ms. Atkins's angled-leg business was also a highlight of "Indiscretions"
on Broadway five years ago.) Under the fine-tuned direction of
Matthew Warchus, these stars unpack their arsenals like peacocks
spreading their tails. ... |||
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