"'Isolde' forces its heroine to choose between the pragmatist and the fantasist...This being a Maxwell play, the lines aren’t quite that clear cut. The cast are all veterans of New York experimental theater. Here they make us aware of the inadequacy of speech, the layers within one scream and the eloquence of longing within a silence."
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"Perhaps the director has pushed his zero-fakery, total-truth aesthetic to its logical conclusion: letting gifted actors act...It’s the most frankly erotic show I’ve seen from Maxwell. And sure, to any Maxwell newbie, the non sequiturs, cryptic pauses and jarring shifts in tone will seem utterly absurd and weird. So not to worry: Maxwell may be Off Broadway, but his vision keeps its beguiling, hypnotic, beautiful severity."
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"Richard Maxwell’s 'Isolde' belongs to the Mad Libs school of dramaturgy, in which random elements are fitted together to fashion something absurd. Ideally, the way the elements fit or don’t should produce sparks of emotion or at least, as in Mad Libs, peals of laughter. 'Isolde' just sits there, complacently making no sense."
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"There is some energetic, bare-bottomed boinking in experimental author and director Richard Maxwell’s mostly intriguing 'Isolde.' The meditative pace and quiet create the mood and cast a spell in this work. Four terrific actors are another big plus, especially during a couple yawn-inducing stretches."
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"At its best, 'Isolde' presents individuals struggling to defend their needs and viewpoints, which often they cannot actually articulate...By the same token, it is a strange, slow, often puzzling work full of pauses and aimless pontificating. The actors deliver their lines in a disconnected, flat manner, which can be off-putting."
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"Maxwell has been showered with awards and critical praise for his distinctive deadpan style...But if the one-note performances lull the audience into a slumber, they're really not going to hear the words the playwright crafted...The prelude to Wagner's opera 'Tristan und Isolde' plays softly in the background, reminding us of what greater artists have done with the source material. Sadly, at Isolde, one only gets the clumsy sound of a restless audience."
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"As I took my seat at TFANA, I felt well-versed in the theory of Maxwellian theatre. But nothing could have prepared me for the astonishing dullness of it in practice...Watching 'Isolde,' I felt I was trapped in an exercise in anhedonia. Never has passion felt so limp."
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"To enter into the world of playwright Richard Maxwell is to forego any expectation of straightforward clarity, richly realized characterizations, or emotional connection. If you can accept these strictures, however, you will be pulled into a bare bones universe that is as compelling as any of Harold Pinter’s what-lies-beneath-the-surface works."
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