Reviews: The Broken Heart

“That’s an inspired touch.”  New York Times

“Love collides with gory revenge in John Ford’s rarely produced tragedy, which is getting a welcome production from Theatre for a New Audience.  In Selina Cartmell’s astonishingly lucid and ravishingly beautiful production, the piece simply rivets audiences’ attention.” Theatermania

“Theatre for a New Audience and director Selina Cartmell deserve accolades not just for reviving Ford’s little-known The Broken Heart, but also for giving it the kind of revelatory production that proves it’s an overlooked classic. The ensemble is uniformly fine, Cartmell is obviously a classical director to watch.” Village Voice

“This stylish rendition of this rarely performed play captures all of its chills and black humor.  The action is clear and swiftly paced, and the large ensemble does well by both the play’s poetic language and its intense physical demands.” New York Post

“There’s a lot to admire in Selina Cartwell’s ghostly production … [with] several truly superb actors.”  New York Magazine

“A sophisticated, insightful, classy production. The timelessness of Ford’s characters’ emotions enables director Selina Cartmell to make the work completely accessible to a modern audience.”  Associated Press

“A peerless production from Theatre for a New Audience. Hallelujah for the ever-inventive director, Selina Cartmell, who has taken a difficult poetic play and made it accessible to all. There’s hardly a false note in this stylish, chic­ presentation that happily also succeeds in conveying a definite emotional punch. A production no serious theatergoer should miss.” Backstage

“The Broken Heart has all the hair-raising pleasures of the genre — grisly blood-lettings, whispered accusations of incest, creeping madness, starvation, and a whiff of necrophilia. This to-the-hilt (sometimes literally) drama is matched by to-the-hilt stagecraft in this magnificent production under Selina Carmell’s direction.” Philadelphia Inquirer