The reviews are in for Delirium, Igor Golyak’s adaptation of Eugène Ionesco’s 1962 Frenzy for Two, or More, which his Arlekin Players Theatre brought to Brooklyn’s Space at Irondale after a Boston-area run this summer and opened on September 24. It is a two-hander for Chulpan Khamatova and Andrey Burkovskiy as a couple who cannot stop arguing about whether a snail and a turtle are the same animal while a war tears their building apart around them. The two performers draw some of the warmest notices of the fall, and the design, a scaffold set by Jan Pappelbaum and Cecilia Xuetong Feng that sheds metal and dust at every explosion, is admired almost as widely. The disagreement is about endurance: for some critics the relentless squabbling is the point, and for others it is the evening’s one real weakness.
The verdict: eleven reviews so far. Three carry a score and eight do not: The Front Row Center gives it 4.8 out of 5, Culture Sauce 4 out of 5 and New York Notebook three stars of its own, so the two that score out of five average 4.4. The one point nobody disputes is the acting: Chulpan Khamatova and Andrey Burkovskiy are praised in every notice, as clowns, as a couple and as the engine of the whole evening, and the collapsing set and the sound design come close behind. Where the critics part company is stamina. The New Yorker, TheaterMania, This Week in New York and The Front Row Center are close to unreserved, while Culture Sauce would cut ten to fifteen minutes, New York Theater says the chaos requires patience, Off Off Online finds the play well short of Ionesco’s best, and New York Notebook finds the bickering petty and tiresome.
What are critics saying about Delirium?
The New Yorker
“Gut Renos of Ionesco and Chekhov”
Reviewer: Emily Nussbaum
“Still, what makes Golyak’s production really roar into flame is the astonishing magnetism of his performers, Chulpan Khamatova, a Russian theatre and movie star who fled her homeland because of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and Andrey Burkovskiy, a celebrated Russian figure skater and actor. They’ve got Chaplin chops, with Khamatova a mischievous Kewpie doll in a mop-top blond wig and Burkovskiy a craggy acrobat whose expressions shift, like tectonic plates, from petulance to yearning. In Golyak’s vision, these two are not dead-eyed Rock ’Em Sock ’Em robots but flawed, tender humans who are vain, silly, angry, defensive, horny, innocent, and triumphant.”
TheaterMania
“Bickering Fish in the End Times in Delirium”
Reviewer: Zachary Stewart
“In addition to delivering the kind of gutsy physical performances we have come to expect from actors trained in what remains of the Soviet system of state-subsidized theaters, Burkovskiy and Khamatova radiate a magnetic attraction that makes their characters’ relationship not only plausible but irrepressible. We know why they keep coming back for more, even as they drive each other slowly insane.”
New York Theatre Guide
“pick your battles”
Reviewer: Kyle Turner
“Burkovskiy and Khamatova, with effortless chemistry, underline the meaninglessness of their characters' petty debates and demonstrate a moving commitment to them — both characters, at different times, hang the survival of their relationship on the arguments. Burkovskiy gives Him a macho stubbornness that easily translates to clownishness, conveyed through forceful, rigid movement that crumples at the sound of bullets. Khamatova is adamant but elegant, jokey but unwaveringly certain she's right. Together, the pair have an easy call-and-response quality that makes their fights believably spiky, delicate, and familiar all at the same time.”
The Front Row Center
“Brilliant throughout, with frequent splashes of even more brilliance.”
Reviewer: David Walters · 4.8 out of 5
“While the plot is minimal, the play explores themes of communication breakdown, the escalation of conflict, and the absurdity of human disputes. It is both a comedic farce and a surreal commentary on the insanity of modern life, how ordinary disagreements spiral, and that direct link to what the world is currently experiencing.”
Culture Sauce
“Ionesco’s ‘Delirium’ keeps calm and carries on bickering through the explosions”
Reviewer: Thom Geier · 4 out of 5
“Burkovskiy, a veteran of many productions with Golyak’s Arlekin Players Theatre, has the long-limbed flexibility of a silent-film comic, and he milks simple bits of physical comedy for big laughs. Khamatova, doffing a water-soaked wig and a variety of faux-fur-lined coat (costumes by Sasha Ageeva), has a daffy energy that combines elements of Betty Boop, Jennifer Coolidge, and a no-nonsense broad from a precode Hollywood comedy. Together, they forge a convincing portrait of a couple drawn together in misfortune even when they’re not driving each other up a wall. Plus, they are very, very funny.”
New York Notebook
“Splashing about in murky waters as the bombs rain down”
Reviewer: Sandy MacDonald · three stars
“Brace yourself for 80 minutes or so of friction alternating with flirtation – a pattern which fast proves irritating, no matter how engaging the actors or ambitious the metaphor. As former divorcés (perhaps?) who coupled by choice, the pair are locked in a love-hate relationship that would put George and Martha to shame – if only His and Her disputes weren’t so petty and tiresome. (A representative bone of contention: She insists that turtles and snails belong to the same genus; he demurs.)”
Exeunt NYC
“A master class in absurdist theater anchored in two exceptional performances.”
Reviewer: Loren Noveck
“Admittedly, it doesn’t sound all that funny–except for the snails and turtles–but Delirium is blessed with two extraordinary performances from Andrey Burkovskiy and Chulpan Khamatova, brilliantly directed by Golyak. Both are exceptional physical comedians, who can constantly surprise with a prop or a splash of water (there’s a fishtank onstage, so plenty of opportunities for water). Burkovskiy is rakish and rangy, with a rubbery Three-Stooges quality and a constant look of mild surprise. Khamatova—a huge star in Russia, exiled by her opposition to the current war—is a compact ball of fierce, fizzing energy, a Lucille Ball type whose facial expressions always go one step farther than you’d think possible.”
Off Off Online
Reviewer: James Wilson
“For all that is wonderful about this Delirium, the play does not rank among Ionesco’s best, and the show’s pungency flags. It lacks, for instance, the trenchant satire of Rhinoceros, and it does not have the sense of urgency of The Chairs, which also has a quarreling older couple at its center. Without sufficient character development, and featuring nearly nonstop wrangling and brutishness, this work of Theatre of Derision transforms into Theatre of Fatigue.”
This Week in New York
“Chaos and Frenzy: Delirium in Brooklyn”
Reviewer: Mark Rifkin
“Burkovskiy (Seagull: True Story, Khonen in The Dybbuk) and Khamatova (Ivanov, Shushkin’s Stories), who appeared together in the San Francisco production of Our Class, are superb as the longtime lovers, reminding me of a younger Christopher Lloyd and Carol Kane, with touches of Ricky and Lucy, Ralph and Alice, and George and Martha. They both display expert comic improv chops and occasionally relate directly to the audience, particularly as the play progresses. Burkovskiy has an electric stage presence, while Khamatova wonderfully balances innocence and petulance.”
New York Theater
Reviewer: Jonathan Mandell
“These are the moments that made it worth sitting through a production whose chaos, for all its inventive variation, requires some patience. The performers demonstrated an endurance far more impressive than my own; As they smothered each other with heavy mattresses, jumped on top of one another, rushed up and down stairs, it started to hurt my back just to watch them.”
Interludes
“Absurdity, expertly rendered, in Arlekin Players’ Ionesco adaptation Delirium and Hell in a Handbag’s Queen for a Day”
Reviewer: Adrian Dimanlig
“The production features a pair of sensational, fearless performances by Andrey Burkovskiy and Chulpan Khamatova. Burkovskiy previously proved his mettle to New York theatergoers in his striking performance in Seagull: True Story. Khamatova, who I was not familiar with, is actually an exiled Russian actress of great renown, and she proves why with a layered performance of uncanny depth. Both brilliantly draw from the clowning and avant-garde theater traditions. And even though English isn’t their first language, they navigate the subtleties of the text with impressive nuance and expressiveness. Suffice to say, their turns are delivered with panache and impeccable timing.”
For more of what the New York critics have been saying, read our roundups for Degenerates at Playwrights Horizons, The Holes at the Wild Project and Simon Stone’s The Cherry Orchard at the Park Avenue Armory, which The New Yorker reviewed alongside this production.
Delirium runs at The Space at Irondale, 85 South Oxford Street, Brooklyn, through November 7, 2026. The running time is about 90 minutes, with no intermission. Production photos by Austin Ruffer.
