The Hard Problem
The Hard Problem
wonkit
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/30/08
#1The Hard Problem
Posted: 10/30/18 at 12:31pm
I love Stoppard but I read this play and struggled a lot. It seems like Arcadia Light - a fascinating discussion of the issue of what consciousness is, but without the lovely time shifts and relationship parallels that make Arcadia one of my favorite plays ever.
Has anyone seen the production at the Newhouse? Any thoughts?
#2The Hard Problem
Posted: 10/30/18 at 1:32pm
I saw the Hard Problem at the Court Theater in Chicago a few years back and thought it was completely enthralling, each of the characters was incredibly real and the discussion of consciousness was engaging and accessible. But I imagine that wouldn't necessarily come across reading the play.
wonkit
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/30/08
#3The Hard Problem
Posted: 10/30/18 at 4:36pm
But you have answered my question! If actors can put some spin on this work, I will go see it. As I said, love Stoppard.
#4The Hard Problem
Posted: 10/30/18 at 4:58pm
Saw the play at the American Conservatory Theatre a few years ago and remembered it being quite a strong and entertaining play, though for a Stoppard piece it wasn't particularly challenging. I really like to go to a Stoppard play so I can make my head hurt, and this merely held my attention. Haven't seen the Lincoln Center production but why on earth is Jack still being hired?
#5The Hard Problem
Posted: 11/1/18 at 7:28am
I saw the U.S. premiere at the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia. I found the play entertaining, if slight. As Synecdoche2 suggests, this is not overly cerebral Stoppard -- and there are pluses and minuses to that. The Wilma production was weird: a ton of white walls and blinding light cues, and a live jazz musician onstage improvising during scene changes which added nothing to the play. But the acting was good there, and I'd say the play is still worth seeing, especially if you like Stoppard.
Haven't seen the Lincoln Center production but why on earth is Jack still being hired?
Stoppard and O'Brien have a long history so it's not at all surprising he would be hired to direct this.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#6The Hard Problem
Posted: 11/27/18 at 9:20pm
Having seen one production of this play , I never want to see it again.
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