Broken Glass (play)

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Cover to the Penguin Group edition
Cover to the Penguin Group edition

Broken Glass is a 1994 play by Arthur Miller, focusing on a couple in New York City in 1938, the same time of Kristallnacht, in Nazi Germany. The play's title is derived from Kristallnacht, which is also known as the Night of Broken Glass.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Phillip and Sylvia Gellburg are a Jewish married couple living in New York in the last days of November 1938. Phillip works at a Wall Street bank, where he works on foreclosing. Sylvia suddenly becomes partially paralysed from the waist down after reading about the events of Kristallnacht in the newspaper.

Dr. Harry Hyman is contacted by Phillip to try and help Sylvia recover. Dr. Hyman believes that Sylvia's paralysis is psychosomatic, and though he is not a psychiatrist, he begins to treat her according to his diagnosis. Throughout the play, Dr. Hyman learns more about the problems that Sylvia is having in her personal life, particularly in her marriage.

After an argument with his boss, Philip suffers a stroke and is dying at his home. Phillip and Sylvia confront each other about their feelings. Before Phillip dies, his final words are "Sylvia, forgive me!". Upon his death, Sylvia is cured of her paralysis.

[edit] Staging

Broken Glass was first staged, and received its world premiere, at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut,[1] before transferring to the Booth Theatre from April 24, 1994 to June 26 of the same year, totalling 73 performances.[1] The original production was produced by Robert Whitehead, Roger L. Stevens, Lars Schmidt, Spring Sirkin, Terri Childs, and Timothy Childs; and directed by John Tillinger.[1] It received its British premiere at the Royal National Theatre's Lyttelton Theatre on August 4, 1994.

Broken Glass was nominated for the 1994 Tony Award for Best Play, but it lost out to Angels in America: Perestroika.[2]

[edit] List of characters

  • Sylvia Gellburg
  • Phillip Gellburg, Sylvia's Husband
  • Dr. Harry Hyman, Doctor of Sylvia Gellburg
  • Margaret Hyman, Wife of Dr. Hyman
  • Harriet, Sylvia's sister
  • Stanton Case, Phillip Gellburg's employer

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Broken Glass on ibdb. www.ibdb.com. Retrieved on January 17, 2007.
  2. ^ Tony Awards Best Play 1994. tonyawards.com. Retrieved on January 17, 2007.

[edit] External links

Plays:
Fiction:
Focus (novel) · "The Misfits" (short story) · I Don't Need You Anymore (short stories) · Homely Girl: A Life (three short stories)
Non-fiction:
Situation Normal · In Russia · In the Country · Chinese Encounters · Salesman in Beijing · Timebends (autobiography)