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The Arts Intel Report

The Doctor

The cast of The Doctor.

June 2 – Aug 19, 2023
643 Park Ave, New York, NY 10065, United States

The Austrian playwright Arthur Schnitzler (1862–1931) is perhaps best known for his 1912 play, Professor Bernhardi. This “comedy in five acts” is set in 1900 and centers on the title character, a Jewish doctor in Vienna. He fights with a priest about whether his patient, a young woman dying from abortion complications, should receive last rites or be spared the knowledge that she’s about to die. In 2019, Robert Icke adapted the work, setting his version in the era of social media and making the Jewish doctor female, now named Ruth Wolff. Having won rave reviews in London, the play now comes to New York. The brilliant Juliet Stevenson continues in the role of Wolff. —Jensen Davis