“In New York City at the Manhattan Ensemble Theater, there is a new play based on the true love affair between the greatest 20th century philosopher, Martin Heidegger, and his former student, the political theorists Hannah Arendt. For Radiohead fans, there will be a pleasant surprise. The production company appears to be fans of Radiohead and there are many Radiohead songs played before the play starts. One can hear Creep, Fake Plastic Trees, How to Disappear Completely, etc. The sound person interestingly mixes these Radiohead songs with songs classical compositions. One might hear over half of a Radiohead song and then the sound person/DJ fades to a classical song and then a minute later will fade back to the Radiohead song just previously played to finish the song.
“The play is terrific. As ‘Hannah and Martin’ finishes its last scene with the main character, Hannah, struggling with Heidegger’s mistaken political choices, the lights fade to black and one hears the discordant but stirring opening guitars to Let Down. As the song continues being played, the actors gather and the actors bow to the audience.
“Radiohead’s Let Down is a perfect song to the end the play because the all the characters have this feeling of let down where the ground has completely dropped. Arendt and Heidegger’s former admirers in academia do not understand why their friend Heidegger joined the Nazi party. They cannot fathom how a great intellect could be so blind, a question that many academics even Heideggerians still wrestle with and confront. Heidegger himself feels let down and a complete anxiety overwhelms him.
Presented by the Epic Theater Center.
At the Manhattan Ensemble Theater in SoHo, 55 Mercer Street, New York, NY.
(Thanks to RR.)
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