It came as a bit of a surprise when I heard that "Heisenberg" was moving to Broadway. Last year, Manhattan Theatre Club's tiny Stage II seemed the perfect venue for the intimate two-hander, and now it's playing in a house more than four times the size. Could it possibly maintain its minimalist appeal or would it be swallowed up? Well I'm very happy to report it remains as deeply engaging as ever.
Mary Louise Parker and Denis Arndt return as a pair of misfits who somehow manage to connect despite being worlds apart. She’s an irritating chatterbox prone to making things up. He’s a stoic introvert winding down a very unremarkable life. There’s 33 years between them and the fact is, neither is all that interesting. And yet as written by Simon Stephens and so beautifully performed, what transpires between them bears out Heisenberg’s famed uncertainty principle in the flesh. Or put another way, opposites do attract.
On the surface, it’s a very basic work. Off-Broadway, the audience surrounded the stage, essentially becoming eavesdroppers on this unlikely affair. For Broadway, director Mark Brokaw, with set designer Mark Wendland, recreated the effect by shrinking the playing space and converting the upstage area to stadium seating.
That they're able to maintain the play's intense level of intimacy on that bigger stage is a collaborative triumph. With lesser talents, the intended sparks between these two would likely fizzle. But the connection, given Parker and Arndt's ample talents, still blazes with profound honesty.
Don’t let size fool you. What seems so incredibly simplistic somehow registers as one of the most emotionally complex relationships you’re likely to witness on stage or in real life.