Tao of Glass

Last Updated on July 31, 2026

A Portrait of the Artist…

3.0 out of 5.0 stars

The charismatic Phelim McDermott is the central figure in The Tao of Glass, a work that originated from a unique theatrical collaboration with the American minimalist composer Philip Glass. First staged as part of the 2019 Manchester International Festival, it tracks Phelim’s life from a young theatre-obsessed boy, to a teenager obsessed with the music of Philip Glass, to a renowned director, writer and performer known in part at least for his work directing Philip Glass’s Satyagraha and Akhnaten. Originally an hour and three-quarters with no interval, the performance in the round now runs to close on three hours, including a short interval. A brave development, with the ten musical pieces that were created through what was described as a collaborative improvisation session still forming the anchor for Tao of Glass, but with considerably more storytelling, memoir and reflection from McDermott.

Those hoping for a wealth of puppetry might be disappointed, as there was very little on show here, just a small boy-puppet who was at times McDermott himself, then Mickey, the main character in Maurice Sendak’s In the Night Kitchen and finally Phelim’s son. And, a very, very brief sighting of a puppet head of Philip Glass himself together with various-sized piano puppets. The three puppeteers (Sarah Wright, Janet Etuk and Vic Llewellyn), along with McDermott, are on stage for much of the performance, but more as actors and stage hands.

A small but beautifully formed band with Percussion (Chris Vatalaro), Piano (Catherine Tinker), Clarinet (Jack McNeill and Violin (Kasia Ziminska) performed the ten works brilliantly (with the help of a fantastic and covetable Steinway Spirio player piano). Sound throughout was perfectly managed, with recordings, voice and live music. Lighting too (Colin Grenfell) was impeccable, with moments of brilliant creativity – a New York Skyline created from kitchen props, manuscripts on fire and more. Simple but effective design from Fly Davis helped clarify some of the more obscure philosophical ideas, with three simple rings rising and falling to encircle McDermott.

The ten meditations on themes including creativity, loss, death, coincidence and artistic collaboration were narrated by McDermott. A reflection on his own creative life and friendship with the composer, he described stalking Glass in London to a sushi restaurant, meeting Sendak to discuss a potential production of In the Night Kitchen and finally, spending a week working on creating the music for Tao of Glass in a New York Studio with Glass himself improvising at the Piano. Where does true inspiration come from? McDermott reflected on Glass telling him that inspiration was like a fire that needed to be kept alight with ‘logs’ of life – and that the final log, when you got blocked, was always yourself.

In the original production, Glass himself was part of the musical ensemble. Part of the challenge for the West End production is that, in his late 80s, he’s now too old to travel. Yet, his presence is almost entirely through his music rather than as a character. Where the work succeeds is in setting Glass not simply as one of the most influential composers of the past half-century, but as an artist whose openness to collaboration has inspired generations of theatre-makers. But, with a longer run time and more storytelling about McDermott, I was left feeling this was no longer the Tao of Glass. McDermott himself alluded to that with a story about a broken, expensive, glass coffee table, telling us that the show was all about the hardness of glass and how it shattered.

The Tao of Glass is a warm, witty and moving exploration of McDermott’s creative process and an insight into a deep relationship between McDermott and Glass. But, at nearly three hours, it feels somewhat indulgent, and the musical elements are subsumed by the storytelling. I left feeling I knew McDermott himself as intimately as it’s possible to do so from watching someone on stage. But with very little real insight into Philip Glass’s psyche.

28 Jul 2026 – 12 Sep 2026

Tao of Glass
Soho Place
4 Soho Place,
London,
W1D 3BG

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