The Glass Menagerie

THE GLASS MENAGERIE

Tennessee Williams

State Theatre Company of South Australia

Saturday 12th May 2012

It's exciting to see a play you have studied in great detail brought to life on the stage. To see the complexities of the text and the playwright's intention alive right infront of you is very inspiring. But it gives me and equal rush to see a text I know nothing about on the stage where everything is fresh and unexpected. The Glass Menagerie was one such play. I was familiar with the work of Tennessee Williams through A Streetcar Named Desire but knew very little about his other plays so I was excited to see The State Theatre Company's production of The Glass Menagerie to experience something new.

This was also the first time the boyfriend had been to the theatre, don't ask me why it took me so long to get him there! He was familiar with the text from high school english studies and it was weird that he knew more about a play than me! But it was interesting to see the different experiences we had with our different knowledge of the text.

The Glas Menagerie is a 'memory play', the memory of Tom Wingfield, (Andrew Gooley) our narrator, of the family's experiences in 1937. As he enters the space the set appears almost magically from the floor and ceiling as if he is remembering each tiny detail of the apartment as it appears. Victoria Lamb's set design created the perfect intimate setting to contain this trapped and suffocating family.

The play is achingly sad and powerful. Seeing Tom and his sister Laura (Kate Cheel) under the suffocating embrace of their mother Amanda (Deidre Rubenstein) and their inability to escape is almost painful to watch. Amanda is a classic Williams character, the fading southern belle wrapped up in the past dreaming of her former beauty and elegant life. Rubenstien is perfect as the overbearing Amanda, her fierce desire for Laura to receive a gentleman caller is maddening to watch but also intensely heartbreaking.

Though a powerfully sad play it also has moments of humour. Tom's sarcasm and Amanda's quick wit  make for a fantastically funny interchange between the two near the end of the first act. As Tom, Andrew Gooley's sarcastic quips perfectly capture his exasperation and inner struggle with his responsibility to the family. It is the juxtaposition between his humour and struggle that make the sad moments so agonizingly beautiful.  

In the second act we meet Laura's gentleman caller Jim O'Connor (Nic English). The candlelit scene between the two is incredibly moving. The gentle strength of their performances created a world in which only they existed, we forgot about Tom and Amanda, we finally were able to see Laura without her overbaring mother. Cheel's Laura was wonderfully fragile and it was beautiful to see her noticeably gain courage and hope from her gentleman caller. 

Though painfully sad to watch in parts, Williams himself said that The Glass Menagerie was the saddest play he had ever written, The Glass Menagerie also combines humour and wit to create a play that is beautifully poignant and moving. The State Theatre Company has done a fantastic job of telling this powerful American classic.

"for nowadays the world is lit by lightning"