Broken Glass – Young Vic

Unlike Arthur Miller’s heralded classics, Broken Glass is not a play that turns up on the syllabus or tests the skills of the nation’s amateur dramatic societies. As one of Miller’s later plays (1994), it’s not the best example of his genius. It’s a complex oddity that mixes history, symbolism and the challenges of identity into an itchy and overly ambitious psychodrama.

The play was first performed in Connecticut in June 1994 and had its UK premiere in August of the same year at the Lyttelton Theatre. It bagged the 1995 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play and was nominated for a 1994 Tony. The play has an undeniable history of mixed reviews, but this particular production drew curious anticipation thanks to the presence of director Jordan Fein. Young Vic scored a coup by getting Fein onboard following his critically acclaimed productions of Into the Woods (Bridge) and Fiddler on the Roof (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre),

Broken Glass is set in 1938 in New York’s Brooklyn. Via the dysfunctional marriage of Phillip and Sylvia Gellburg, Miller analyses the American Jewish experience, as rising antisemitism escalates in Nazi Germany. The play’s title refers to Kristallnacht, The Night of Broken Glass of November 1938 that saw German synagogues torched across the country.

While absorbing media reports of Jewish oppression in Germany, Sylvia Gellberg (Pearl Chanda) suddenly loses her ability to walk. She seems physically paralysed by fear, while everyone around her shrugs off Nazi news reports with baffled irritation. Why worry about events in dusty, faraway Europe, while everything is groovy in NYC?

Sylvia’s husband Philip (Eli Gelb) is self-loathing, manipulative and at odds with his Jewish heritage. On one hand, he’s boastful about being the only Jew at his bank, but is very keen to distance himself from other Jews in the community. Gelb is mesmerising in this role. He’s like a Hollywood heavyweight in an Elia Kazan movie. Whether Gelb has gone full Method for this role, or is just performing Lee Strasberg vibes, it’s electrifying to watch. Gelb somehow turns Philip’s howling pain and horrible character into something close to sympathetic. An amazing performance.

Phillip calls in the family doctor Dr. Harry Hyman (Alex Waldmann) to nail the cause of his wife’s condition. Is it her husband’s impotence? Does she just need love? Is her husband’s shame and denial fuelling her fear and anxiety? Dr. Hyman asks these questions but is woefully inappropriate and takes advantage of the bed-ridden Sylvia. One of these scenes prompted a shocked gasp from the Young Vic audience.

Arthur Miller admitted that he based this philandering socialist doctor on one of the many physicians who had treated his ex-wife, Marilyn Monroe. This adds a whole other element to this play, which is messy, troubling and weird. Watching Broken Glass, as war rages in Ukraine and across the Middle East is almost surreal. Miller is juggling many themes, but largely, he’s holding up a mirror and exploring society’s complicity in genocide. When Miller wrote the play, he referred to the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, astounded that humanity could “devolve into this tribalism again”.

Sylvia appears to be a lightning rod, absorbing the collective guilt of those who choose to look away. “I just get the feeling sometimes that she knows something.  It’s like she’s connected to some…some wire that goes half around the world, some truth that other people are blind to.” 

As Israel denies committing a genocide and America gleefully celebrates war, this production of Miller’s play is wilfully awkward. The set is scattered with contemporary newspapers which reference Gaza and Trump’s designs on Greenland. At times, the house lights are on full blast, which makes the theatre seem like a courtroom in which the audience is confronted by itself. The set design by Rosanna Vize is deliberately jarring, with a spooky window at the back through which characters view the action like extras in a David Lynch film. At two hours, with no interval, Miller’s intense and wordy script is not for lightweights. It’s exhausting, intense, and aside from a few lulls, strangely compelling.

Broken Glass is at Young Vic until April 18th 2026 https://www.youngvic.org/

Reviewer: Stewart Who?

Reviewed: 4th March 2026
North West End UK Rating: