Written in 1994, Arthur Miller’s Broken Glass enjoys a revival at the Young Vic. It is set in the early days of the Second World War, as the Nazi atrocities in Germany are just becoming known in Roosevelt’s USA.
However, despite period songs pre-show and occasionally between scenes, there is a very modern water-cooler and visible newspapers referencing Andrew and Epstein.
A set of seats that closely resemble the audiences, plus a pink-red carpet that runs up the walls (referencing Sylvia’s line about giving birth to herself?), only punctuated by a window through which characters occasionally peer, are the main set pieces (designed by Rosanna Vize).
A bed, a rather active goldfish (at least visible from my side of the auditorium) and an office ceiling offer a confused sense of place, time, and location, deliberately so as Broken Glass is full of mysteries, voyeurism and opinion.
Philip’s wife, Sylvia, has suddenly found herself paralysed with no obvious physical reason. A Jewish couple married more than 20 years with a son – unseen – who is set to join the army, they seem happy on the surface. Newspaper headlines bother her, desire dominates her. Her husband hasn’t touched her in years.
The Hymans, doctor and wife, are the other major characters. He, a Jew, married a Gentile. Meanwhile, Philip’s WASP boss at the bank seeks to foreclose on and change a cultural quarter of New York.
Broken Glass is a very political piece, while also bringing out themes of religion, devotion and love. Sylvia’s state seems to be all in the mind, but can anyone get through to her?
Jordan Fein’s staging blends scenes and offers a sense of Sylvia and Philip’s increasing mental agitation. Scenes between the doctor and patient take place in lamplight illumination. An initial consultation with the worried husband lights up the audience in the stalls as if a court or commons are in observance.
The issue with Broken Glass is that it is very much in the shadow of Miller’s big-hitting plays of earlier in his career. We have recently seen revivals of two with All My Sons and The Crucible.
As an American Jew, born in Harlem, Miller obviously knew of what he spoke. However, the play lacks a true emotional core and places a large burden on its cast. Pearl Chanda’s Sylvia has delicacy and quietness, but Eli Gelb – fresh from Stereophonic – over-emotes as Philip.
Alex Waldmann’s Dr Hyman is perhaps the most impressive performance, although the character doesn’t quite let us in. He’s there as the sympathetic observer for the Gellburg dynamic, and the catalyst for the shifts in the final act.
Although I found the play watchable – and the 2 hour runtime without interval didn’t drag – it isn’t subtle, and its depiction of a psychosomatic illness as a metaphor for outside events sometimes jars.
There are moments to admire in this production, but it doesn’t quite connect with its themes of antisemitism, overwork, sexuality, and political inertia.
I’m giving this 3.5 stars.
Broken Glass continues at the Young Vic until 18 Apr with tickets here.
Photo credit: Tristram Kenton