Text taken from Várad Magazine | author: Fried Noémi Lujza

It is clear that director Timofey Kulyabin, playwright Roman Dolzhansky and set designer Oleg Golovko have substantially intervened on Arthur Miller's drama "Broken Glass", and the music composed by Timofei Pastukhov proves excellent for maintaining high tension even during the short transitions between scenes. The connection between the Russian creators in European exile due to their anti-war positions and the Regina Maria Theater in Oradea was made by Raluca Rădulescu, the translator of the play. The result of the collaboration, the performance "Broken Mirror" by the Iosif Vulcan Troupe, was presented to the public for the first time on November 16, on the main stage of the Oradea theater. In fact, the American playwright's play was translated into Hungarian by Tamás Ungvári under the title "Üvegcserepek".

The creators updated the original story and introduced a new character, so that not Kristallnacht, but the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, becomes one of the possible causes of the paralysis of the legs of the young Jewish woman Sylvia Gellburg (Denisa Irina Vlad). The clinic director, Robert Wilson (Richard Balint), does not appear in the original play, but in this version he is the one who connects the scenes from which the story is built (in contrast, in the Oradea staging we no longer meet Margaret Hyman, a character present in the original text).

The scene is dominated by Wilson's office, and in three "windows" we can follow the events in the Gellburgs' apartment, in the office of Dr. Harry Hyman (Răzvan Vicoveanu) and in the office of Stanton Case (Alexandru Rusu), the boss of Philip Gellburg (Eugen Neag). The play also features Jessica (Anda Tămășanu), Sylvia's sister, who tries to help her sister and the doctor who treats her from the shadows, sometimes revealing confidential information. The story is also layered, as multiple nuances of the relationships between husband and wife, doctor and patient, the patient's family, but also between boss and subordinate are presented. These latter relationships appear in two different forms: the relationship between Wilson and Dr. Hyman, who is trying to save the clinic's reputation, is completely different from that between Stanton Case, the head of a press trust, and his employee, Philip Gellburg, who, although an excellent employee, is now making mistakes, and because of this the company loses the opportunity to acquire a successful publication.

The story of the play is built from contradictory relationships, dirty little marital secrets, open and repressed aggression, emotional and sexual sterility, the use of questionable therapeutic methods, professional failures or, on the contrary, giving up a successful career because of marriage, as well as from the violation of boundaries between doctor and patient.

Although the treatment seems, at first glance, a success—Sylvia regains her ability to walk and even leaves a marriage that has failed in every way—this success comes with collateral damage: the husband, who is wheelchair-bound after a stroke, sues the doctor and the clinic. Dr. Hyman—though he escapes the husband’s lawsuit—still leaves the clinic, and, despite Wilson’s insinuations, it is unclear whether there can be a continuing relationship between him and his patient. Perhaps the only „winner” of the play is Sylvia, who regains her health, autonomy, and independence; she is the character who, throughout the play, visibly rebuilds herself from her own (shards of glass) while others fall apart.

The show raises and analyzes tough and current questions, and one of its merits is that it does not offer ready-made answers, leaving the viewer the freedom to find them for themselves. What effect does the constant flow of information that reveals every detail and the competition in the media have on readers, but also on journalists or television people? Where are the limits of the doctor-patient relationship? But what about the limits of the relationship between a man and a woman, even within marriage? Is it acceptable or necessary to tolerate verbal or physical aggression within marriage? What role do professional stress, successes or failures play in human relationships? — these are just a few of the questions that came to my mind while watching the show. And, finally, one of the most important questions, also spoken on stage: can we forgive — not the other — but ourselves?

(text translated from Hungarian)