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Previewed 14 September 2011 - opened 16 September 2011 - closed 10 December 2011 at the Vaudeville Theatre in London
A major revival of Arthur Miller's play Broken Glass in London starring Antony Sher and Tara Fitzgerald and directed by Iqbal Khan.
Arthur Miller's Broken Glass centres on the lives of Phillip and Sylvia Gellburg, a New York couple living in Brooklyn in 1938. Phillip, who is obsessed with work and his own desire to assimilate, has little time for his wife - but when Sylvia suddenly becomes paralysed after reading newspaper reports of Kristallnacht in Germany, Dr. Harry Hyman is called in. As he gets closer to the source of Sylvia's affliction, a relationship develops that could have devastating consequences on the family as themes of guilt, personal tragedy and love start to unfold.
The cast for Broken Glass in London features Antony Sher as 'Phillip Gellburg', Tara Fitzgerald as 'Sylvia Gellburg' and Stanley Townsend as 'Dr Harry Hyman' with Caroline Loncq as 'Margaret Hyman', Suzan Sylvester as 'Harriet' and Brian Protheroe as 'Stanton Case'. It is directed by Iqbal Khan with designs by Mike Britton, lighting by Matthew Eagland, music by Grant Olding and sound by Ed Borhnis. This is a 're-staged' version of the critically acclaimed production that Iqbal Khan directed at the Tricycle Theatre in 2010 which feaured Antony Sher and Lucy Cohu as 'Sylvia Gellburg'. Antony Sher's recent London theatre acting credits include Ronald Harwood's Mahler's Conversion (Aldwych Theatre 2001) and Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac (Lyric Theatre 1997), he also directed Fraser Grace's Breakfast with Mugabe (Duchess Theatre 2006). Tara Fitzgerald's West End theatre credits include Molière's The Misanthrope (Harold Pinter Theatre 2009) and Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None (Gielgud Theatre 2005). Arthur Miller's other plays recently seen in London's West End include All My Sons, The Crucible, Death of a Salesman, The Last Yankee, The Price, Resurrection Blues and A View From The Bridge.
"Themes slide through it like snakes - the beginnings of psychoanalysis, the 'it can't happen here' denial of Jews living in the safe embrace of the United States and the relationship of sexual power and personal identity. In his maturity, Arthur Miller finds a way of making much of this amusing and the play is peppered with great lines... Although Sher has played the role of Phillip several times, I was less convinced by him than anyone else... Phillip wants not to be noticed and the problem with Sher's performance is that every tic and mannerism is designed to make you notice him... Nonetheless, it is a powerful production, driven by Miller's fabulous language and subtle theatrical dynamics perfectly orchestrated by director Iqbal Khan in its transfer from the Tricycle Theatre." The Daily Express
"Antony Sher as Phillip Gellburg is rigid with self-control, jerky with self-doubt and long impotent despite a yearning love of his wife... Iqbal Khan's production deserves all the praise that it won last year at the Tricycle. Tara Fitzgerald as Sylvia moves convincingly from misery and terror to final compassion, and Townsend gives the doctor a swaggering warmth. Above all, Miller's shaping means that after all the angst, internalised terror and explosion of rage as Phillip's heart gives out, the final scene is full of laughter. Close to death he gets the point. We're all afraid, but that's no excuse for giving up. As the raucous Mrs Hyman says: 'You draw your cards face down. You turn them over and do the best with what you get.' Human absurdity overflows the confines of pain to become the joke that it is." The Times
Broken Glass in London at the Vaudeville Theatre previewed from 14 September 2011, opened on 16 September 2011 and closed on 10 December 2011.