The Glass Menagerie
Tennessee Williams
Duke of York's Theatre
26 APRIL 2017
£20.00 (on Love Theatre)
The Glass Menagerie is a memory play, which made Williams the household name he is today. Premiering in 1944, the play centres around the family home and reveals intimacy, vulnerability and disappointment in the lives of the 4 characters present.
Love Theatre was my very best friend, and was offering tickets to the play for £20.00 each. Upon random selection, we were given BB1 and BB2 (the second row from the front) which I thought must be problematic, seeing as they were going so cheap... They actually ended up being fantastic seats, the only downside being you couldn't quite see the pool of water which formed part of the stage floor.
The play centres around a character named Tom, played by Michael Esper, recalling the family and home he left behind. Cherry Jones plays the brash, suffocating and excessive mother, Amanda. Whilst Katie O'Flynn dazzles as his younger sister, Laura, who is both excessively vulnerable and infinitely lost. Being a cast of only 4, the acting in The Glass Menagerie is second to none. It was one of the only plays I have been to where I was completely lost in the action on stage, there was not one moment my thoughts wandered to how uncomfy my seat was or how I might need a wee soon.
Encapsulated by the action, it helped that the staging was simple yet effective. Set solely in the domestic sphere of the American home, the feeling of suffocation provided by Jones' character increases throughout the play, and even those trips out of the house (Laura to go to school/walks in the park, Tom to get drunk) seem to only stifle the characters further: showing there is no real escape.
The whole show was so fantastic that no one scene particularly stands out, however, I must admit that the hairs on my arms stood up during the scene between Laura and her Gentleman caller - and old school friend of Tom's. Effortlessly charming whilst still holding a sense of vulnerability and clumsiness, Brian J Smith makes it almost impossible to not fall a little bit in love with his character yourself (helps that he's quite a looker as well...) It is a scene centred on nostalgia, hope, dreams and the power of fate. Whilst it builds itself up to offer a happy resolution, we are then firmly reminded that 1930s America was not a place where fantasies came true.
The play shifts between a gritty realism and dreamlike trance. The physical theatre used to show flashbacks and images within Tom's mind is beautifully choreographed and never appear to be out of place or cringey. Overall, this play is beautiful, touching, hair raisingly powerful, and one of the best things I have seen on stage. Ever.
OVERALL RATING: *****
https://theglassmenagerie.co.uk/
