THE GLASS MENAGERIE - at the ADC
It’s astonishingly easy to break something precious – like a unicorn made of fine glass or a child’s life. Tennessee William’s first successful play, written in 1944, combines the playwright’s gift for poetic but powerful language and his incisive instinct to survey the human condition with deep compassion. The play set in the Deeper South of the Depression era is no easy call for an English Am Dram group but, in this case, Combined Actors shone through. Partly autobiographical, the play examines three lives trapped like a fly in glass bottle. Amanda is an overbearing mother and hopeless fantasist who is caught between happy memories of Dixie charm and the betrayal of a husband who ‘worked on telephones but fell in love with long distance’. Her daughter Laura has been beaten down by disabilities – a childhood trauma to her leg which labelled her at school as an outsider, and a debilitating shyness. Haunted and withdrawn, her only joy is in playing a few old records once belonging to her drunkard father who had fled the nest, and her eponymous collection of glass animals. Amanda seems to wish no more than that Laura should find a husband by attracting at least one ‘gentleman caller’. She had dozens of them in her own youth and in her own version of her younger life was the southern belle of the ball.
The third person in the family is Tom, Laura’s brother, who is the narrator in the play. He talks directly to the audience and tells us that the whole story is based not on reality but his memory of reality.
Tim Drummond was thoroughly convincing as Tom – mannered in his storytelling, deeply frustrated by his mother’s inability to let him loose on the world and sorry for his lonely sister. His was a powerful and clearly delivered performance. Lynne Livingstone grew into the part of Amanda and particularly came to the fore in the second half when she dons on of her former ballgowns in anticipation of a gentleman caller for Laura. She captured Amanda’s forced and stylized coquettishness, pain beneath the smiles.
There are few smiles for Laura and Asher Guy delivered a role that was deeply tragic – a young woman beaten and cowed by her fate. It was a measured, unshowy performance that blended well with Amanda’s mercurial character.. Guy created a Laura that was more of a spectre; grey and pumped dry of ambition.
We had to wait for the second half to meet Jim O’Connor, the much-anticipated gentleman caller who, Amanda hopes, can turn poor Laura’s life (and her mother’s) around. Christian Bailey was perfectly cast in this role – part swagger but something reassuringly humane. There is a particularly powerful scene between Laura and Jim – one of those rare moments when you could hear the proverbial pin drop in the audience.
If I had to find fault with this otherwise most satisfying production, it was the use of mime to replace props. The way it was done looked half-hearted and for me, spoiled the illusion so necessary in any play. Also, there were a few slack scene changes including an unfocused end to Act 1. Lastly, the volume of some of the actors could be turned up a bit as the nicely chosen incidental music often drowned out their quieter moments.
These niggles aside, this was a fine reading of this wonderfully moving, sometimes funny and deeply honest play. Don’t miss it.
