Review
by Alec Clayton
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| Laura (Jess Weaver) and Jim (Nick Fitzgerald), photo by Tim Johnson |
Tennessee
Williams was a genius, and Lakewood Playhouse does more than justice to his
masterpiece, The Glass
Menagerie. Williams’ plays are among the best in what many consider the
golden age of American drama — because he makes complex human emotions seem
simple and because he writes such inventive lines as “…the powerful and
obnoxious odor of mendacity” (Cat on a
Hot Tin Roof) and “He s a telephone man who fell in love with long
distance” (The Glass Menagerie). And
for his wonderful use of metaphor, such as in the title itself — Laura’s glass
menagerie or collection of tiny glass animals is a metaphor for Laura’s fragile
psyche and the broken lives of all the characters.
The structure of Menagerie, with narrator Tom Wingfield (Niclas Olson) stepping in
and out of the character and even signaling when lights should be turned up or
down, is a masterful stroke and one of the most inventive uses of “breaking the
fourth wall” I have seen. Olson and Director Micheal O’Hara can be credited
with this. Williams left such innovations up to the producing companies, along
with freedom to interpret lighting and sound, which Sound Designer and
Playhouse Artistic Director John Munn, along with Lighting Director Aaron Mohs-Hale
did in a way Munn calls cinematic. Both were dramatically
effective.
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| from left: Tom (Niclas Olson), Laura, and Amanda (Dayna Childs), photo by Tim Johnson |
Tom works a job he hates and longs to
get away from the stifling home he shares with his domineering mother, Amanda
(Dayna Childs) and his painfully withdrawn sister, Laura (Jess Weaver). Laura’s
debilitating shyness is masterfully and painfully enacted by Weaver. The
character was based on Williams’ sister Rose, who ended up in a mental hospital
and was lobotomized.
Amanda tries to live her life as a Gone with the Wind-era Southern belle
and wants nothing so much as to find a “gentleman caller” to romance Laura.
That gentleman caller appears in the guise of Jim O’Connor (Nick Fitzgerald), a
workmate of Tom’s who is invited for dinner. Jim is charming, and he gently
draws Laura out of her self-imposed shell, but there is cruel thoughtlessness
underneath his charm.
Menagerie is Williams’ most
autobiographic play. Tom is clearly Williams, and Laura and Amanda are based on
his mother and sister. Tom as the narrator even states as much, calling the
play a “memory play.” Williams was gay, and there has been much speculation
that Tom is a closeted gay man. But the only hint to this in the play is that he
goes to the movies every night and does not come home until the wee hours of
the morning. Amanda thinks he’s up to something else and not really going to
the movies.
The pacing and the direction by Micheal
O’Hara is excellent, as are James Venturini’s set design and Mohs-Hale’s
lighting design. The ensemble cast is smack-on, especially Olson and Weaver.
Childs’ over-the-top take on the clichéd Southern belle is hard to take, and
some might think unrealistic, but I lived in the Deep South and I know that
such characters existed when this play is set, and there were still a few
around when I left the South in 1988.
The Glass Menagerie is a sad and
depressing play. It is almost three hours long, including intermission. Yet I
came away stimulated and not depressed. It is a great play, beautifully
produced and acted.
The Glass Menagerie
8
p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, 2 p.m., through March 11
Lakewood
Playhouse, 5729 Lakewood Towne
Center Blvd., Lakewood
$20-$26
(253)
588-0042, https://www.lakewoodplayhouse.org/
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