Review: BROKEN GLASS in Westport

Westport Country Playhouse closed its season by honoring the centennial of Pultizer prize-winning playwright Arthur Miller with his 1994 play, Broken Glass. The title partly refers to Kristallnacht, the pogrom during which the windows of Jewish-owned homes and businesses and synagogues were smashed and nearly 100 Jews murdered during those attacks and 30,000 more were arrested and sent to concentration camps. However, it really refers to the broken spirtis of a Brooklyn couple.

In a nutshell, Brooklyn resident Sylvia Gellberg (Felicity Jones) becomes inexplicably paralyzed when she starts to read about the horrors of Kristallnacht. Her husband, Phillip (Steven Skybell) hates being Jewish and resents working as a foreclosure specialist for WASPY snobbish bank president Stanton Case (John Hillner). Dr. Harry Hyman (Steven Schnetzer) is not a psychiatrist, but he tries to analyze the cause of her psychosomatic paralysis. Sylvia's sister, Harriet (Merritt Janson) tries in vain to help her sister, even if means spilling family secrets, and the observant Margaret Hyman (Angela Reed) tries in vain to ignore her husband's growing personal interest in Sylvia.

It is not surprising that most people are not familiar with this Miller play. It is the only one of his plays with very strong Jewish themes. It is extremely complex and powerful regardless of the characters' ethnicity. While there is no doubt that the mind can have a tremendous role in a person's physical health, the idea that someone could become physically paralyzed is a stretch. Sylvia's real paralysis is about the emotional conflicts she feels about her marriage. Like many women of her generation, she gave up her occupation as a bookkeeper for marriage and motherhood, a huge mistake because Phillip is controlling and occasionally abusive. The occurrences in Germany and Austria, an ocean and continent away, were the catalyst to her facing her own broken life and her husband's dealing with his embarrassment at being Jewish. There was no indication that she even knew anyone in Germany or Austria, so it is hard to accept that it would affect her so deeply. The most implausible part of the play was Sylvia's regaining her ability to walk the moment when her husband lost consciousness.

The other issue that may be a factor in the play's lack of popularity is that most of the characters are not very likeable. Dr. Hyman, however, as played by Schnetzer, is caring, wise and sincere. His love of riding makes him more interesting than the other characters. Margaret Hyman, as played by Reed, is so pleasant that she almost seems out of place. We know practically nothing about them except their relationship to each other. It would be so nice if the people involved in the Estate of Arthur Miller would allow another playwright to enhance the play. It's like a house with great bones, but it needs work.

The cast was excellent and it is obvious that all the actors and director Mark Lamos worked very hard to make this a great production. Hillner was chilling as the bank executive who put up with an employee he tolerated as long as business went well, but showed his true colors when a real estate deal went sour. Skybell and Jones made the most of characters that are like porcupines. Janson was believable and genuine as a woman who put her sister's best interest ahead of her own.

Westport Country Playhouse prides itself in offering theater worth talking about. That is always the case, but hardly ever more than with this production. Despite the flaws of Miller's play, the show is worth seeing and discussing. There are several auxiliary programs to commemorate Miller's work. Start with this show, which runs through October 24. For tickets, call (203) 227-4177. Westport Country Playhouse is located at 20 Powers Court in Westport. Visit www.westportplayhouse.org.

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