The Substance of Fire


The Substance of Fire is a play by Jon Robin Baitz.

Overview

Isaac Geldhart is a survivor of the Holocaust. He arrived in New York City an orphan, reinvented himself as a bon vivant, married well, and found fame and fortune as a champion of authors who are passionate about their work rather than its best-seller potential. He is faced with a family-business conflict, the potential Japanese takeover of his increasingly insolvent firm. He must browbeat his three children, all principal stockholders whom he dismisses in varying degrees, into accepting his plan to publish a six-volume scholarly work on Nazi medical experiments, despite their belief that a highly successful commercial novel is the only thing that will keep them from going under.

Productions

The play premiered at the Long Wharf Theatre, New Haven, Connecticut, in 1990 directed by David Warren in a workshop.
The Substance of Fire opened Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons on March 17, 1991. Directed by Daniel Sullivan, the cast included Ron Rifkin, Sarah Jessica Parker, Patrick Breen, and Jon Tenney.
The play transferred to the Lincoln Center's Newhouse Theater on January 31, 1992. The play closed on July 26, 1992 after 205 performances.
Rifkin won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play. The play won the 1992 Lucille Lortel Awards, Outstanding Director, Daniel Sullivan and Outstanding Actor, Ron Rifkin.
The play was presented at the Mark Taper Forum in January 1993. Directed by Sullivan, the cast featured Patrick Breen, Ron Rifkin, Jon Tenney, and Gena Rowlands.
The play was revived Off-Broadway by Second Stage Theatre, opening on April 27, 2014. Directed by Trip Cullman, the cast featured John Noble, Halley Feiffer, Daniel Eric Gold, and Charlayne Woodard.

Film

Baitz and Sullivan reteamed for the film version, in which Rifkin and Parker reprised their stage roles. The cast also included Timothy Hutton, Tony Goldwyn, Lee Grant, Elizabeth Franz, Dick Latessa, and Eric Bogosian.
The film was released by Miramax in the United States in 1996, after being shown at several film festivals, including the Deauville Festival du Film Americain, Boston Film Festival, and Mill Valley Film Festival. Sullivan was nominated for the Grand Special Prize at the Deauville Film Festival.