Belleville at Studio Theatre

Belleville

Studio Theatre
1501 14th St. NW Washington

Abby and Zack traded the comforts of America for noble adventure abroad, moving to the trendy Parisian enclave Belleville for his prestigious post with Doctors Without Borders. Their lives seem perfect. But when Abby returns home early one afternoon, she uncovers a few seemingly inconsequential surprises. Chillingly precise and psychologically astute, Amy Herzog (4000 Miles) anatomizes the consequences of deceptions small and large and the terrifying, profound unknowability of our closest relationships.

Thru - Oct 12, 2014

Price: $20-$78

Running Time: 1hrs, 40 mins, no intermission

Buy Tickets

Nearby Restaurants

Find Discounted Parking near Studio Theatre for Belleville

Belleville Reviews

Average Rating based on 7 reviews

Highly Recommended
Recommended
Somewhat Recommended
Not Recommended

Washington Post - Somewhat Recommended

"...The idea that you really don't know the person you sleep with has long been a staple of domestic stories on stage and screen, in everything from August Strindberg's "The Father" to Showtime's "Homeland." In the pursuit of the chills this notion provokes, Herzog doesn't so much tweak the formula as exploit it. Although moments of "Belleville" make you shiver, you're left with the suspicion that on this occasion, this talented playwright could have found a way to affect you more deeply."

Read Full Review

- Peter Marks

DC Theater Arts - Highly Recommended

"...Belleville is also a love story. The penetrating melodrama is an emotional achievement with a core that points straight to the ideals and people we love and says, are we in love with them as they are or as the potential we hope them to be? Having it all ... What does the notion of a perfect life even mean? Really? Can you honestly ever "know" another person? Yet for Abby and Zack they seem to be a couple who had it all. Their characters have known each other since college and they call each other "Homey." But nothing is what it seems."

Read Full Review

- Sydney-Chanele Dawkins

DCist - Recommended

"...A few flaws do pierce this realism, even after the play has moved on from an uneven opening. Zack’s twitchy, desperate search for pot plays out like he’s a junkie from an after school special. And the final scene of the play, an almost-silent, slow denouement feels like a contrived cathartic moment for the audience to process the climax rather than adding any substance to the story. Still, a moment to breathe before the curtain call is absolutely required. Belleville is a suspenseful and wild emotional ride, and one well worth seeing. For the paranoid, though, probably best not to take your significant other along with you."

Read Full Review

- Riley Croghan

MetroWeekly - Recommended

"...Belleville is tautly acted by a cast of four, led by Gillian Williams as Abby and Jacob H. Knoll as Zack, a seemingly happy American couple who move to Paris for his work and her pleasure — or so the story starts. Everything spins out from there, with the couple’s modern one-bedroom apartment (gorgeously realized by Debra Booth) the center of it all, comfortable until it becomes claustrophobic, and much worse."

Read Full Review

- Doug Rule

Talkin Broadway - Recommended

"...Muse's direction starts naturalistically and moves by infinitesimal steps into darker territory. Williams and Knoll ably depict the shifting nature and uncertainties underpinning the relationship between Abby and Zack: is she emotionally unstable, is he the caring husband he seems to be, and can they find common ground? Steady offers a well-modulated performance as a man trying to balance friendship with responsibility, and Jones makes a notable impact in a small role."

Read Full Review

- Susan Berlin

Washington City Paper - Somewhat Recommended

"...Illogical details aside, Belleville remains the sort of unsettling tragedy that stays with you, because this production treats all four of Herzog's characters with more sympathy than they have for each other. "It's not actually a catastrophe," Amina says to her husband, in French, at the play's end. It's not clear whether he agrees with her. Or should."

Read Full Review

- Rebecca J. Ritzel

DCTheatreScene - Somewhat Recommended

In Belleville, Herzog’s characters face moron dilemmas, as in how to survive in the face of idiotic decisions. It is done with the same attention to detail and the same tuneful ear to dialogue that characterizes all of Herzog’s work, and Studio Theatre plays the hell out of it. It’s just that, as Gertrude Stein said of Oakland, there’s no there there.

Read Full Review

- Tim Treanor