Doctor in a spin

Anne McElvoy

● I MISSED THE DOCTOR when its preview season in Islington was truncated by Covid shutdown. Now it arrives at the Duke of York’s theatre in the West End and the timing feels even more apposite. Its subject is the tangled contest between hyper-rationalism and religious belief. In a lacklustre era for intellectually satisfying fare in the West End, this one is a zinger. It is Robert Icke’s adaptation of an Arthur Schnitzler play Professor Bernhardi, which explored tensions between Jewish and Catholic communities in the early years of the last century. Icke allows Schnitzler’s core concerns about anti-Semitism and the clash of white coat and dog-collar their due. But he adds topical strains about the remit and risks of divisive identity politics. Juliet Stevenson is outstanding as a driven,…

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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, November 2022

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