The Glass House - Theatre review

Dara Avenius | June 15, 2010 1:16 PM
http://www.citizenyc.com/news/2010/06/theatre-review-the-glass-house.html

Theatre Review: The Glass House

People in glass houses shouldn't throw their weight around; they might destroy something beautiful. A glass house lets outside viewers see all that is going on inside. Naked to the world, the creation of this glass house shed transparency and light upon a complicated and true relationship between a wealthy and accomplished single doctor, Dr. Edith Farnsworth, and her rumored relationship with the renowned architect Mies Van Der Rohe, played brilliantly by Harris Yulin.

Based upon the true story of the creation of the Farnsworth House outside of Chicago, this story brings to light the tensions between architect and commissioner, man and woman, competitors in the same field and the sexual relationships of the time. Set in the early World War Two years, we come to meet Dr. Edith Farnsworth, a prominent doctor in the 1940s, seeks to build as her weekend house a glass house in the plains outside of Chicago, so she may get away to nature.

Playing guide, catalyst and enemy to this story is Phillip Johnson, a soon-to-be renowned architect in his own right, who suggests his mentor Mies would be the right person to build the house she seeks. A recalcitrant figure, Mies embodies a man not seen as much in current times. Stubborn, willful, brilliant, private, he has a wall up that no contractor can knock down, and certainly not a woman who can go toe to toe with him in accomplishments. Although they enter into what is perceived as a mutual and loving relationship, a former lover of his enlightens Edith on his true nature and story as tensions between them only rose in regards to the cost of the house.

A closet - what every woman wants and needs plenty of causes the break in their relationship. Casually and callously suggesting she only bring one dress with her and stick it on a hook over the bathroom door, he refuses to build a closet. It would ruin the aesthetics of the place. He also argues over the furniture she seeks to put in the house.

"People say I'm a fool to build this house," Edith Farnsworth says in the play.
"You said you wanted to advance the art of architecture," Mies responds.
"I did, but I thought you were building a house for me," Farnsworth says. "My house is a monument to Mies van der Rohe, and I am paying for it."
"When you hire a great artist, you are supposed to be thrilled with what you get," Philip Johnson tells Farnsworth. "Would you tell Picasso what to paint?"

It is a perfect storm of ambition, desire, creativity and money, mixing professional and personal roles, and the roles of men and women, especially in a previous era, that all meet to form this story. Devolving into a very bitter legal fight over the house, as it lays unfinished for awhile, Phillip Johnson is then able to scoop the idea for the house and his own glass house in Connecticut, and start his own storied career.

This play sheds light on the hidden turmoil that went into creating an historic new form of architecture in the form of a glass house.

cast list
David Bishins, Gina Nagy Burns, Harris Yulin, Janet Zarish

directed by
Evan Bergman