Letters to the Ledger Opinion

Arthur Miller wrote two – not one – Jewish-themed plays

I disagree with the statement that “Broken Glass” is Arthur Miller’s only “Jewish play” (“Celebrating Arthur Miller at 100: Conversation with Mark Lamos,” Ledger, Sept. 18, 2015).

Mark Lamos states that “Broken Glass” emerged because “I became very interested in the one play where Arthur deals with Jewish identity. I found that increasingly interesting because in all of his other plays that’s just not on the table.”

Mr. Lamos apparently is not aware of Arthur Miller’s play “Incident at Vichy,” which he wrote in 1964, and which focuses on a group of Frenchmen who are detained at Vichy France while it is under Nazi occupation and are “investigated” under suspicion of secretly being Jewish.

The play premiered on Broadway on Dec. 3, 1964. A London production in 1966 starred Alec Guinness. Miller adapted the play for a 1973 television production. Some years ago, it was presented as a fundraiser at the Mandell Jewish Community Center [then the Greater Hartford Jewish Community Center] on Bloomfield Avenue [in West Hartford] with a cast of New York professional actors (I had a small role in it).

Harry Lichtenbaum
Wethersfield

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