"A riveting fever dream of a play...Jolts the system through some of the most sophisticated visual and sound effects on display in New York...The subjects of these experiments are portrayed by Murphy, Doherty and O’Conor, in bravura performances...In the play’s final sequence, Walsh lets this entity explain itself...and I wish he hadn’t...As a whole, though, 'Arlington' is as creepy and compelling a vision of a blasted tomorrow as you’re going to find these days."
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"While there is frequently beauty in Walsh's works, there's also self-indulgence...Walsh is looking in the mirror, and he can't tear himself away. And when he directs, as he does here, we're fully in an environment of his devising, which only has one criterion: what's coolest...Taken in images, 'Arlington' is quite beautiful...Beckett and Sartre are clearly influences here, but Walsh hasn't got their bite. He's a sentimentalist, and a cheeseball one."
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“A dystopian cocktail of theater, dance, and performance art that somehow still leaves you with the sweet taste of a love story…It's a testament to Walsh's talent for dialogue that we care so deeply about the connection between two strangers who have never met face-to-face...It's also a testament to Murphy and O'Conor's performances that they're able to nourish this subtle chemistry, as well as the charm and humor that Walsh embeds within such depraved circumstances."
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"A fairly straightforward drama, if an enigmatic one...I fear that such vaguely conceived dystopias tend to be surprisingly uninteresting...'Arlington' is never boring, however, largely because of the extraordinarily committed performances by its three-person cast...A lot happens but what it all means is never very clear. Walsh asks the audience to infer too much, and his intentions remain thoroughly cloudy."
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“Walsh binges himself on multiple loose theatrical forms and multi-media formats, all expertly done, but the clang made when they all come together can make more noise than sense. At times. At other times, the raw emotion is astonishing...Amidst hard times, the done thing in creativity is to visit dystopian isolation. There’s a sense that whatever Walsh is doing here is far less political than it is personal, giving him free rein."
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"It’s hard to describe without trying to impose an interpretation, or see hints of '1984,' but we do so at the risk of reductivism. Walsh provides scant narrative from which to draw concepts like character, plot, theme, setting or meaning...Walsh manages to tap into both our nagging daily anxieties and our most conspiratorial fears. 'Arlington' looks and feels like that dream where familiar settings suddenly become menacing, for no identifiable reason, and we start running like hell."
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“‘Arlington’ invests more attention on sensory stimulation than clarity or coherence…Walsh’s gift for dialogue shines through…For those theatergoers with a taste for avant-garde, multimedia performance art, ‘Arlington’ is well done. The two actors and the dancer are appealing and credible. The rock score is fast and furious. The design offers a near-constant barrage of in-your-face lighting changes, sound effects and projections.”
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“Walsh withholds so much information – the time, the place, the relationship of the imprisoned Isla and her interrogator — that chronic disorientation is the immediate and arguably appropriate response to ‘Arlington’…The story of ‘Arlington’ becomes clear, not because of Walsh’s powers as a storyteller. It’s that he borrows so much from other sources.”
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