Iqbal Khan’s current production of ‘Broken Glass’ is beautifully judged. But judgement is precisely what’s lacking in his revival of Frank Marcus’s 1964 comedy.
Faced with a dated portrait of doomed lesbianism, Khan doesn’t know whether to send it up or take it seriously. His cast is left floundering.
Meera Syal stomps ineffectually as the butch Buckridge, who is told that Sister George – the district nurse she plays in a BBC radio soap – is about to get the chop. Buckridge fears losing Alice – her frightened, infantile partner – as well.
As Alice, Elizabeth Cadwallader lacks conviction, although her winsome attempts to win the sympathy of Belinda Lang’s BBC panjandrum are occasionally amusing. There are, however, far too many clunky changes of mood and risible lines.
One can only imagine that a frisson of sapphism, with a sprinkle of sado-masochism, blinded audiences to the play’s failings when it first appeared.