by Doctor Science
The American premiere of Tom Stoppard’s latest play, “The Hard Problem”, is at the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia. We went last Saturday, and after we got back I looked up some reviews of the world premiere run in London. Most of them seem to have found it “slight”, “lesser Stoppard”, and to not have felt connected to the characters, or moved by them.
It’s like we’re not talking about the same play. I connected with (and recognized) the characters: insofar as they’re two-dimensional, it’s that of cubes seen head-on. Their depths are unexplored, left for fanfic writers, but I felt as though the depths were *there*. I don’t know how much of the difference is due to the production, and how much is due to me seeing things the London reviewers overlooked, but it’s very disconcerting.
Cutting here for a spoiler-laden review.