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A CurtainUp Review
The Glass Menagerie
By Elyse Sommer
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"All of my gentlemen callers were sons of planters and so of course I assumed that I would be married to one and raise my family on a large piece of land with plenty of servants. But man proposes and woman accepts the proposal! To vary that old, old saying a bit. . .I married no planter! I married a man who worked for the telephone company! . . . A telephone man who fell in love with long-distance!"—Amanda about her poor choice of a husband
"People go to the movies instead of moving! Hollywood characters are supposed to have all the adventures for everybody in America, while everybody in America sits in a dark room and watches them have them! Yes, until there's a war. That's when adventure becomes available to the masses."—Tom "I wish that you were my sister. I'd teach you to have some confidence in yourself. The different people are not like other people, but being different is nothing to be ashamed of. Because other people are not such wonderful people. They're one hundred times one thousand. You're one times one! They walk all over the earth. You just stay here. They're common as weeds, but you, well, you're Blue Roses! — Jim, |
Cherry Jones (Photo: Michael J. Lutch)
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You undoubtedly know the Wingfields' story since the current revival is preceded by sixty-nine years worth of productions, as well as several movies. But given the stunningly fresh staging by Director John Tiffany and his crafts wizards from Once and the magnificent performances of his cast, this The Glass Menagerie retains its timeless pathos and poetry, yet sustains a sense of meeting Amanda, Tom, Laura and the long awaited and doomed to disappoint gentleman caller"" for the first time.
The actress who plays the Southern Belle who picked the wrong "gentleman caller to marry is usually the one who gets the most attention. Cherry Jones is not only the ticket selling name on the on the Booth Theatre's marquee but probably the most memorably believable of all the Amandas I've seen.
" Jones masterfully gets inside the skin of a woman raised to believe that being pretty and charming is the sole path to a good life, and she does so without excessive mannerisms and considerable humor. Consequently the compulsive recollections about her 17 gentlemen callers give new meaning to the grotesqueness of a middle-aged woman clinging to a long-gone past.
In Jones's portrayal, Amanda's nagging, self-deluded denial of Laura's physical and emotional problems — even the frilly costume donned for the doomed to fail dinner party— become the desperate coping mechanism of a woman with no other guidelines for dealing with a difficult reality. She's sufficiently grounded in the play's depression era to enable us to see her less genteel-raised counterparts in today's harsh economic world. Some of her most devastating moments are wordless.
Celia Keenan-Bolger and Brian J. Smith
(Photo: Michael J. Lutch) |
John Tiffany and his stellar team contribute mightily to the sense of a first time viewing experience even by those of us for whom the Wingfields have become more like people we've known than characters in a play — or, in the case of the gentleman caller,"" a pop culture allusion.
Bob Crowley semi-abstract setting taps into the play's structure and mood. Since Tom introduces the play as a look back into memories of the family he abandoned to roam the world and pursue his literary ambitions, the events leading up to his breaking free are, like all memories, hazy. Thus Crowley's St. Louis Apartment is more metaphorically than specifically detailed. Each room is on a separate but close enough to navigate platforms (the space between each a potent symbol of what keeps this family uneasily bonded). As the Wingfields lives are dismally empty and lacking in security and joy, so these platform rooms are without walls and minimally furnished. Even Laura's glass menagerie is limited to a single but luminous unicorn.
I'm not familiar with the layout of the American Repertory Theater where this production first played last year. But while the pool of dark water around the apron of the stage is a brilliant additional visual metaphor for the dark abyss facing the Wingfield, neither the water or its dark reflection is visible everyone seated in the Booth's orchestra. A fellow critic who sat in a left aisle seat just a few rows from the stage told me that if she hadn't known about it, she would not have seen the dark liquid filling this moat-like addition to the stage. Ditto for my seat in the center section of the orchestra but further back. No problem seeing the eerily tall fire escape.
That visibility problem notwithstanding, this atmospheric set and Mr. Tiffany's deliberately slow pacing and stylized direction pull you right into the dismal world of this fatherless, impoverished family. Stephen Hoggett's movement choreography further enhances the sense of emptiness and slowly unraveling lives. As in Thornton Wilder's ground breaking Our Town, the daily dinners as well as the crucial one with the the gentleman caller"" on whom Amanda has pinned all her hopes, are served and cleared away without plates, utensils or food.
Mr. Crowley is a double hat wearing wizard, and his costumes are lovely and true to the 30s. The dreamy atmosphere is also strongly supported by Natasha Katz's lighting, especially during the candelabra lit scene between Laura and Jim. Nico Muhly's original music and Clive Goodwin's sound design further add to the overall richness and authentic flavor.
Tennessee Williams had Jim nickname the playwright's poetry writing stand-in character "Shakespeare" (Williams was born Thomas Lanier). That nickname turned out to be a prescient touch. This Glass Menagerie proves that Williams's poetry is every bit as worth experiencing again and again as that of the "other" Shakespeare.
For more about Tennessee Williams see our Tennesse Williams Backgrounder. It includes links to plays we've reviewed, memorable quotes, and interesting facts such as Williams's original intent for The Glass Menagerie as a film for Margare O'Brien to be called The Gentleman Caller.
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The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams Directed by John Tiffany Cast: Cherry Jones (Amanda Wingfield), Celia Keenan-Bolger (Laura), Zachary Quinto (Tom), Brian J. Smith (the Gentleman Caller) Scenic and costume design by Bob Crowley Lighting design by Natasha Katz Sound design by Clive Goodwin Original music by Nico Muhly Movement by Steven Hoggett Stage Manager: Stephen Zweigbaum Running Time: Approx. 2 1/2 hours including one 15 minutes. Booth Theatre 222 W. 45th Street (212) 239-6200 From 9/05/13; opening 9/26/13; closing 2/17/14 Reviewed by Elyse Sommer at September 25th press preview |
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