Revved up... with nowhere to go
Broken Glass (Vaudeville Theatre, London)
Verdict: A bit of a pane
There is fancy acting to be seen at the Vaudeville — Sir Antony Sher and Tara Fitzgerald all revved up — but the play is not much cop.
Arthur Miller wrote Broken Glass towards the end of his life, by which time he was so worshipped by the Establishment that no one seems to have been prepared to wield the red pencil.
It’s about guilt, self-loathing, psychoanalysis and Jewishness. Lots of Jewishness. To a nice Anglican boy like me, this soon became a bore.
Disappointment: Despite its stellar leads, Broken Glass is not much cop
We are in the late Thirties. New Yorker Phillip Gellburg (played by Sir Antony) wants to play down his Jewishness. Gellburg’s pretty wife (porcelain-cheeked Miss Fitzgerald) is unwell, having lost the power of her legs.
Randy Dr Hyman (Stanley Townsend) thinks Mrs Gellburg’s illness is in her mind, but that doesn’t stop him trifling with her affections.
Has Mrs Gellburg been sent mad by her under-sexed husband? Or by newspaper reports from Hitler’s Germany?
Old man Gellburg is a nightmare, fretting and screaming and grinding and generally chewing himself up. Sir Antony immerses himself in the role. If his moodswings seem far-fetched, the fault lies with the playwright.
Lots of Jewishness: But Tara Fitzgerald pierces the heart
Miss Fitzgerald is roughly as Jewish as the late Queen Mother, yet she still pierces the heart.
I’m not sure it’s a terribly likeable play. It struck me Miller might be agonising over his brief marriage to Marilyn Monroe — like Mrs Gellburg, a flawed beauty. Or was he wading into issues about Jewish-American identity? Minefield.
Collectors of top acting may find things to savour. And the cello played between scenes by Laura Moody is superb. But when the Gellburgs’ story came to an unhappy end, I felt little but relief.
- Exclusive: Moment jihadi's gun jams when he tries to shoot...
- The moment suicide bomber detonates explosives in Paris raid
- ISIS Threatens to Blow Up White House in new video
- Chinese hostage films Mali crisis inside Radisson Blu hotel
- Shocking audio final moments of St Denis female suspect
- Security forces in Mali help hostages to safety after attack
- Lockheed Martin's hybrid airships get the green light
- Virginia man calls Muslims 'terrorists' at community meeting
- ISIS threatens NYC in new propaganda video
- Timothy Madden denies raping and murdering friend's child
- Video emerges believed to show the Paris attacks mastermind
- Circus Mountain Lion set free after 20 years in chains
- American mother gunned down in Mali massacre: Aid worker is...
- EXCLUSIVE: Extraordinary selfie of terror mastermind's...
- Father of five arrested in kidnap and murder of girl, 7, who...
- 'The White House will turn black with our fire, Allah...
- BREAKING NEWS: 'Cowgirl' cousin did NOT blow herself up......
- Dramatic video captures moment suicide bomber blew himself...
- Young man forced to post a photo of his passport on Facebook...
- Trump in retreat over Muslim database as he says he didn’t...
- 'It was heartbreaking to hear what had happened': Wife of...
- College student apologizes for criticizing Black Lives...
- ISIS dismiss Anonymous hackers as ‘idiots’ for threatening...
- Kate and Wills looking forward to first Christmas as family...