Broken Glass review – Arthur Miller’s shattering drama chills with new political resonance
Young Vic, LondonJordan Fein’s revival finds hypnotic power in Miller’s 1994 play, as Pearl Chanda and Eli Gelb bring haunting emotional force to a story of paralysis and denialSome might...
By Arifa Akbar · The Guardian Culture
Young Vic, London Jordan Fein’s revival finds hypnotic power in Miller’s 1994 play, as Pearl Chanda and Eli Gelb bring haunting emotional force to a story of paralysis and denial Some might say that Arthur Miller’s 1994 play is less often staged for good reason. Broken Glass is about the unhappy marriage of a Jewish American couple in Brooklyn and also about America’s inaction in the face of rising Nazi terror. You see the play straining to tie those two parts together – and yet this production becomes hypnotic and horrifyingly resonant. It is 1938 and Sylvia Gellburg (Pearl Chanda) is a housewife whose legs suddenly, mysteriously, stop working after she reads about Kristallnacht in the newspapers. She is deemed a hysteric by her husband, Phillip (Eli Gelb) – a typical Miller man, outwardly able but nursing secret wounds and impotence – and a doctor (Alex Waldmann) labels her condition psychosomatic. At Young Vic, London , until 18 April Continue reading...