Broken Glass

Arthur Miller's story is set in the New York Jewish community in the late 1930's. A couple's apparently comfortable life is unravelled as the wife suffers hysterical paralysis of the legs and becomes unable to walk ... the cause could be her domineering husband or her obsession with the news of growing persecutions from Germany. With both her and her husband talking to the Doctor we slowly see the facade of their marriage crumble and their personalities change from the people they pretended to be back to the people they really are. But all too late.

The staging is suitably unobtrusive but emotive, perhaps a little downbeat for two professional couples but appropriate to the modd of the play. We move easily between the doctors, the office and the home with scene breaks marked by some beautiful cello music played live on stage.

Antony Sher as Phillip Gellburg and Tara Fitzgerald as Sylvia play the couple whose life comes under scrutiny superbly well, utterley credible as they progress from agressive and passice to passive and agressive. Stanley Townsend as the catalyst Dr Harry Hyman gives a compelling performance that draws you in to the intrigue and provides the foil of the practical Jew to Gellburg's obsession.

A beautiful night, try to avoid the Upper Circle, you'll feel out of it, Dress Circle is perfect.