Product Description

Set in Brooklyn, this gripping mystery begins when attractive, level-headed Sylvia Gellburg suddenly loses her ability to walk. The only clue to her mysterious ailment lies in her obsession with news accounts from Germany.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1122981 in Books
• Published on: 1995-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 92 pages

From Library Journal
Readers will be thrilled to learn that Miller is back after an absence of more than a decade. Broken Glass marks his return to Broadway, projected for this fall? The play is a little bit about being Jewish and a lot about sexual repression and sexual reawakening. Freud would certainly applaud it since it vindicates his theory that so many illnesses start in the bedroom. Broken Glass is a deceptively simple play with a cast of only six characters. However, the characters are fascinating and passionate, and the drama unfolds like a good novel. Librarians should buy this script not simply because the playwright is a legend or because it is likely to become a classic but because it is a sensitive and penetrating look at human frailties. It should be a part of every dramatic literature or theater collection.
- Jon P. Cobes, Central Wyoming Coll., Riverton
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

AudioFile
Sylvia Gellburg (JoBeth Williams) has stopped walking, and her husband, Philip (Lawrence Pressman), is determined to find out why. His only clue is her growing obsession with stories coming out of Germany about Nazi violence toward Jews. Setting his drama in Brooklyn, 1938, Miller uses the Nazi atrocities overseas as a mirror for the Gellburgs' troubled marriage and Philip's own inadequacies. He creates an intensely personal play, but one that lends itself to the kind of intimacy that audio theater excels in. As Dr. Harry Hyman (David Dukes) probes Sylvia and Philip's secrets, he probes ours as well. That is the mystery of audio after all: It's even more immediate than live stage. Like ripples in pond water, what happens in Germany happens to the Gellburgs and the audience as well, in the hands of these fine artists.

Customer Reviews

Enjoyed the tape version of this book...
Arthur Miller's play, BROKEN GLASS is an interesting psychological mystery set in Brooklyn in 1938 . . . it is about a 45-year-old woman who suddenly loses her ability to walk . . . there is no medical reason why this is happening; the only clue lies in her growing obsession with news accounts from Germany.

What I liked most about the taped version BROKEN GLASS was the cast, which included Lawrence Pressman, Linda Purl, JoBeth Williams, and the late David Dukes (who I had really liked as an actor) . . . this work was put out by a group called L.A. Theatre Works, which features full-cast productions of complete plays . . . my only regret is that I haven't come across too many other things they've done; i.e., that are available from my local library.

Broken Glass
I found Broken Glass interesting but disappointing. One expects the film to hold a much deeper secret and comes away from it thinking "This story has already been told." The three main actors, Margot Leicester, Mandy Patinkin and Henry Goodman, are all marvelous and far better than the script allows. I found Elizabeth McGovern a rather strange choice for the role of Dr.Hyman's wife. I own this film because I'm a huge Mandy Patinkin fan, but I wouldn't have spent the money otherwise.

The Complaint Department
The dimensions of healing placed in contradistinction to the tyranny of complaint.