Belleville

by Amy Herzog

"A quietly devastating play... Both a perceptive drama depicting the sudden fraying of a young marriage and a nail-biting psychological thriller... Belleville is among the most suspenseful plays I've seen in years." - Charles Isherwood, New York Times

"Masterly... Among the new crop of young American playwrights, Herzog is in a class by herself." - Richard Zoglin, Time

Abby and Zack, young American newlyweds, have abandoned a comfortable postgraduate life in the states for Belleville, a bustling, bohemian, multicultural Parisian neighborhood. But as secrets both minor and monumental are revealed, their fraught relationship begins to unravel. Belleville examines the limits of trust and dependency in a world where love can turn pathological and our most intimate relationships may not be what they seem.

AMY HERZOG ’s plays include 4,000 Miles (Pulitzer Prize finalist), After the Revolution and The Great God Pan . Ms. Herzog is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Whiting Writers’ Award, an Obie Award and the Helen Merrill Award for Aspiring Playwrights.

Genres: Plays, Theatre, Drama, Fiction, France

82 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2011

About the author

Amy Herzog is an American playwright. Her play 4000 Miles, which ran Off-Broadway in 2011, was a finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Her play Mary Jane, which ran Off-Broadway in 2017, won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play.

Reviews

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hipsters Sans Frontières. A hipster white girl stubs her toe, and the whole world consequently collapses in blood and flames.

(bringing hardship and loss to a young hardworking African-European couple and their children, whom dozens of obtuse reviewers seem to treat like stage properties and scenery, flora and fauna of Belleville, to the bitter amusement of the playwright _in advance_.)

So: a really rare, amazing thing: this is a profoundly political, polemical, furiously intelligent, sly, acutely analytical, quasi-allegorical, painfully true play about US imperial culture, white privilege, solipsism and entitlement, the useless generation of woke lumpen bourgeoisie, gentrification, the fraudulence of NGO progressivism, and Brownstone Brooklyn's therapy-recovery-self-care culture of tiresome egoist victimology, disguised as a kind begrimed and sardonic version of a cable comedy dissection of the imploding marriage of upper middle class mediocrities who refuse to accede to adulthood and responsibility.

(Hipster Dude says he's in Paris sacrificing a lucrative career as a physician to do research to protect children from AIDS; what he is really doing is jerking off to porn, smoking weed and catering to/controlling his infantile wife who is suffering from advanced perpetual kvetching and demanding disorder, while occupying, in the imperial sense, an apartment effectively seized and swindled and sponged from a striving African immigrant couple trying to build a business and a comfortable life for themselves and their children. Eh voilà.)

Everything about the play's construction and conceit fuses to its themes, including the shunting to the sidelines of the true protagonists, a young Franco-Senegalese couple, by the monstrous vanity, self-pity, greed and sociopathic self-obsession of the charming hipsters, in masquerade as heroic saviors of sick children, slacking and freeloading and defrauding (or really, ironically observing themselves slack, freeload and defraud) in the gentrifying 11th arrondissement of Paris. It's absolutely effing brilliant.

[Tuti · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting subject - short play - good dialogues - motivations not clear enough

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let me preface these remarks by saying that I am a big Amy Herzog fan: I saw an excellent production of her "4000 Miles" recently and am eager to read that play's prequel. In addition, there is much to recommend about this play: the dialogue, for instance, while being very real and grounded, sings with an understated music that is impressive, and the taut mood of anxiety and possible violence that she creates here really gets under your skin. At the same time, though, the play suffers from what I think is a problem with much contemporary drama--it's desperately undercooked. I realize we are well past the age when audiences will sit through a Eugene O'Neil epic on a regular basis and that the economics of Broadway no longer allow for the Kauffman and Hart model of three acts and twenty characters, but I fear that something is being lost in the age of the six-scene, hour-and-a-half one-act that is becoming more and more the norm. There is so much in this play, for instance, about the characters' lives, their backstories, their relationships with each other, that could have been deepened, teased-out, actually enacted instead of discussed (what happened to show vs. tell?) instead of feeling so sudden and even arbitrary.

[Charles Meidlinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

that got dark fast

[Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating, if depressing little play about how and why people give up, and the corrosive nature of repressed pain. It ends abruptly, much like life does, but it also manages to capture, poignantly, how we can see the path we have gone down so clearly when we look behind us, if we bother to. Zach and Abby are both fundamentally good people stuck in a sour situation that they feel responsible for and yet on some level are both guiltless in- neither equipped to deal with what life has given them and yet also having tried to make it work with the best of intentions. A fundamentally human play about regret, miscommunication and forgiveness.

[Shane · Rating 3 out of 5]

A dark play about two Americans in France. The couple soon spins out of control, revealing all the not-so-well hidden problems and lies in their lives.

There is also a more together French couple (at least in comparison to the American couple). The Americans are actually renting from the French couple. There is some additional tension here.

Things get bad fast. Maybe a little too fast? And I really wanted the French couple to play a larger role. Really, it comes down to messed up Americans.

Good play. Didn't quite blow me away. Although there are some serious cringe-worthy moments, along with some really touching parts. Pay attention to the baby monitor.

[Lizzy Murray · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Adrian Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

My original review, when I read this at age 21:
These characters are insufferable! As a study on human communication and realism, this play works. I will probably use this for scene work. These characters are good to really dive into. But as far as a full-length play, it seems at times too much. It's difficult to watch two people in a destructive relationship pretend that they're fine. I enjoyed the surprises and tension, but the marital fighting was angering. At least I felt something though!

My review, reading it at age 28:
Now being the same age as these characters, I of course have a different perspective. Where before I couldn't understand why these characters made such extreme choices, now it doesn't shock me really at all. What happens when you hang on to a relationship you've outgrown or that you've known was unhealthy for years? What happens when you bury your own suffering in order to be a rock for your partner? This play shows a reality that plenty of people live. Abby's lack of direction (especially in the midst of grief) would of course lead her to stay with someone she has viewed as a safe bet all these years. And the pressure on Zack to be that financially and mentally supportive partner would of course drive him to dig a hole that he couldn't possibly get out of. Their willingness to stay together despite their disparaging remarks towards one another is disappointing (and obviously leads to a great demise), but it isn't something I haven't witnessed in the world since my initial review. I see this now less as a crazy out of this world play, and more as a true slice of life.

[Jim Dooley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A single-theme play in six scenes that steps firmly into F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald territory ... even with modern day "ex-pats" living in France. An American couple with many secrets (and a destructive addiction) try to dodge their landlords ... and the truth of how they feel about each other.

It is a powerful piece with harrowing scenes and the unrequited hope for promising future filled with satisfaction and happiness. Of course, when people are at cross-purposes, the chances of that coming to pass continue to dwindle. Will they be able to come together and find an opportunity, or are they already too far mired in tragedy?

Along the way, there is a sub-text of the French culture's reactions to those who are outsiders along with a justification that should have the Reader questioning personal values. All in all, it's more diversion than memorable, yet still worth the visit.

[Colin Cox · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are profoundly appealing and intimate moments in Amy Herzog's Belleville, regrettably, it is a mediocre play. The play's climatic telos does not feel earned, which is rather frustrating. While it seems customary to write that a poor play is probably better experienced staged rather than read, Belleville may fit neatly into that category. Certainly, I can imagine the two principle roles being endlessly enjoyable to perform. Nevertheless, this doesn't detract from an underwhelming reading experience.

[Janine Corman · Rating 2 out of 5]

After reading some incredibly dynamic plays these past few days, this one left me cold. Charles Isherwood described the play as "Both a perceptive drama depicting the sudden fraying of a young marriage and a nail-biting psychological thriller..." These qualities certainly didn't leap off the page. Perhaps with really great actors? I do think that the Abby/Zack scenes would make great scenework for acting students. The ending was ridiculous, and as a whole, I am underwhelmed.

[Melody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Saw the Steppenwolf production of Belleville. Almost had a panic attack in the theatre. Was hoping Herzog's stage directions would provide some more clues. Nope. She is a master of her craft and wants no one to know who is telling the truth and lying in this piece.

[Doug · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would probably 'play' much better than it reads, but as it is, not a very engrossing piece of theatre.

[Laur · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two (understandably so) unlikable characters, with excellent written dialogue, go through a tumultuous day that leads to one of their deaths.

I think I just enjoy plays where the topic aren't QUITE so literally dark. Watching a character get worked up into suicide and then succeeding on stage, is quite the thing to ask of a person, so even in reading it, it felt quite jarring.

I am sure that is the point and it is one of those plays that makes you ask a lot of questions of yourself and your environment, but as someone who does that often already I didn't really enjoy the level at which this play posed the questions -- especially as Zack was so hard on Abby while claiming to love her all the time, and Abby was so oblivious to anyone but herself she didnt notice her husband struggling (due to her own struggle.)

All in all, not a play I would say I would want to see done now that I've read it, but usually is the opposite effect you want after reading a play. But it was beautifully written and extremely well crafted and I am sure when orchestrated well it is a real hard hitter done live.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Good: Amy Herzog has a way with characterization, at least for her leads. You get that the wife is coming over some real trauma, and that the husband is a genuine fuckup. And a large portion of the conflict stems from that personality clash. Which is cool.

The Bad: I saw an interview with her once where she said that she was attempting to write a Hitchcockian story based on a secret. I'm not sure she makes that level just yet. You know fairly early on what the secret is. And I'm not entirely sure that the level of danger that is hinted at by the end of the play really works. It should have a creeping psychological thriller aspect to it, but instead you're just watching a marriage dissolve over time, and it isn't that great.

The Good: Her stage descriptions, pauses, and use of rhythm are amazing, and it shows eveno n the page that this is something that actors would love to perform.

[Roma]

Or, as I like to call it, the couple you’d absolutely hate to be friends with!

Tense and tightly wound, Herzog’s play is a masterclass in tension especially in what’s not said. The real drama lives in the gaps between lines. As the play goes on, both characters slowly unravel, turning it into a kind of domestic thriller, with each of them wrestling with their own issues and the lies they keep from one another.

The other couple acts as a perfect foil to these unhinged expats. Whenever they’re onstage, you get a much clearer sense of what’s supposed to be “normal", which only makes the main couple’s dysfunction feel even more intense and honestly, kind of wild.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

holy fxck was that dark. just finished reading it as of a minute ago so here are my crazy immediate thoughts. the writing is beautiful and the way the foreshadowing throughout the text comes together at the end is absolutely freaking genius. I love how distinct each character is and how so much of the drama and thriller-y goodness is displayed through dramatic irony, aka seeing a character lie about something we just saw happen because the audience knows the truth. super creepy and good. I'd love to play abby one day, she's a super cool role.

[Casey Bond · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amy Herzog is a master of building intimate relationships through subtlety in dialogue. The language in this play is so pointed and painful between two people that are destroying their love with anger that should be directed at the self. However the play is so short that it’s hard for the audience to ever develop a real liking for the characters before they become completely nasty. Still would recommend

[Nazanin Banaei · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a really slight difference between what we think of love and selfishness. I really liked the idea of the play. Although characters may seem like stereotypes. But the whole thing (dynamism and dialogues) feels persuasive enough for me to like this play so much. It also reminded me of the movie (revolutionary road) in many aspects.

[sash ! · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this for acting class since I'm doing a scene from it. Very strange. Kinda went in circles. Zack pissed me off. I appreciated the French though. Craaaazy ahh ending felt insanely unprecedented lowkey.

[Dalton Dear · Rating 3 out of 5]

This brought the drama and suspense for sure. Last few pages were a whirlwind. Premise is great. Maybe not enough character development though? Left me unsatisfied. It could be a 5 star work with some editing.

[ems · Rating 3 out of 5]

technically good writing, but didn't move me

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tense and incisive; a tad bloodless (if not literally?)

[Nick K · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe it is better on the stage than on the page. I did not really care for the characters and they felt a bit flat.

[Libby · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it until the end. I really don't feel like the stakes were high enough for him to kill himself. But otherwise I liked the prose of it.

[Sherrie Colbourn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intriguing and suspenseful

I was pulled into the story and the characters right away. The twists and turns were believable and surprising at the same time.

[Katherine Stein · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read this play twice! It's great.

[Moriya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good twist ending.

[Rene · Rating 3 out of 5]

read for class

[Ron Law · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intriguing play.