THE GLASS MENAGERIE. To 22 November.
St Andrews
THE GLASS MENAGERIE
by Tennessee Williams
Byre Theatre To 22 November 2003
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat 5,8,12,15,19,22 November 2.30pm
Audio-described/BSL Signed 20 November, 22 November 2.30pm
Runs 2hr 15min One interval
TICKETS: 01334 475000
Review: Timothy Ramsden 31 October
Reliable revival of a period piece that never dates.Ken Alexander doesn't use Tennessee Williams' option of incorporating title-captions into the set, but a semi-transparent wall, Jon Beales' moody music, his sound-scape extending splintered glass sounds to suggest a mind being smashed, and Amanda Wingfield's sudden offstage laughter undermining her daughter's meeting with the long looked-for Gentleman Caller, all contribute to the unnerving sensation induced as Tom, realistically taking dust-covers off the furniture, tells us this play is recall, with the unreliability of memory.
Memories abound: Laura's school days, Amanda's affluent Southern Belle childhood her flow is brought up short, the voice softening as she recalls marrying the wastrel charmer who abandoned his family. Instructing her shy, self-consciously limping daughter as if she were a society beauty, it's ironic this is a woman who chose so badly from her, supposedly many, suitors.
Solidity's emphasised at the Byre; the Wingfields' room is surrounded by metal walkways, rubbish bins and washing. Ann Louise Ross shows little of the fanciful Belle-as-was, more the grinding attempt to rise above remorseless poverty, selling' her daughter with the same overkill she brings to magazine subscription tele-sales.
Her golden dress and flowers (making an unlikely joke from the repeated jonquils' she was famous for) at Jim's visit contrast Laura's demure blue. Joanne Bett's moving as the girl receiving torrents of inappropriate advice, lurching from winding the Victrola to seeking support from comfortably familiar furniture. Or standing, staring in her own world of misery, unseeing and unhearing; unseen and unheard.
Jim Webster's plentiful speech indicates confidence, which he begins imbuing in the uncertain Laura until her mother's realistically accidental but metaphorically significant laughter kills the girl's unexpected verbal confidence.
Webster's Jim is brash: not only the stumblejohn' awkwardness he apologises for, but a shallow optimism culminating in the easy way he announces he has a girl already.
Richard Conlon's matter-of-fact as Tom. Frustration at his life, burning literary ambition could burn brighter, but he handles finely the announcement of a Gentleman Caller lounging and joking on the sofa then growing in seriousness. Rightly it's where the crisis begins.
Tom Wingfield: Richard Conlon
Amanda Wingfield: Ann Louise Ross
Laura Wingfield: Joanne Bett
The Gentleman Caller: Jim Webster
Director: Ken Alexander
Designer: Edward Lipscomb
Lighting: Simon Wilkinson
Sound/Music: Jon Beales
Dialect coach: Lynn Bains
2003-11-04 01:03:46