Just got back from tonight's performance- a million thanks to the lovely man who gave me his unused ticket as I waited in the standby line!
This has been my favorite play for a very long time, and I was so thrilled to finally see a production of it, so much so that I may have teared up a little when the Rabbi (played by the brilliant Marieke Heebink) came out to give his opening speech. Obviously, I have nothing to compare it to, but I thought this was a stunning production. True, it moves very quickly, which is occasionally a detriment in Millenium Approaches since so much is built up within that play, but I thought the speed worked perfectly for Perestroika. On the page, I've never enjoyed Perestroika as much as the first play, but here I was entirely invested the whole way through. This was also helped by some of the cuts, almost none of which (with one major exception) were missed by me.
Across the board, the actors were all terrific- in addition to the aforementioned Heebink, I was particularly impressed with Eelco Smits, Roeland Fernhout, and Hans Kesting, who played Prior, Belize, and Roy, respectively. Just as I felt at Ivo van Hove's production of The Little Foxes a few years earlier, this production was so terrifically done that I felt myself forgetting to breathe because I was so engaged with the performance. This is really a wonderful, wonderful production, and if you can, try and scrounge up a ticket for tomorrow. It's very much worth the time.
I am a firm believer in serendipity- all the random pieces coming together in one wonderful moment, when suddenly you see what their purpose was all along.