Being Jewish proves a torment for married middle-aged Brooklynites Sylvia
and Phillip in Arthur Miller’s powerful blend of the personal, psychological
and political, written in 1994 (when he was nearly 80) but set in 1938 as
news of the Nazis’ Kristallnacht rampage hit the NY headlines.
Lucy Cohu’s
gentle, understated Sylvia has mysteriously become paralysed – perhaps
because of her deep fears about what might follow, perhaps because of her
unfulfilling marriage.
Antony Sher’s Phillip, despising his origins yet
proud of what he has achieved despite them, is pasty, sweaty, uptight and
unable to physically express the love he feels for his wife. He’s the polar
opposite of Nigel Lindsay’s completely assimilated Jewish doctor whose
interest in Lucy’s psychosomatic symptoms threatens to overstep professional
boundaries in this intense and poignant revival.
4/5
Tricycle, Kilburn High Road, NW6 7JR
Tube: Kilburn
020 7328 1000
tricycle.co.uk
Until 27th November
£12 – £22
– Louise Kingsley
