The Glass Menagerie

‘The Glass Menagerie’, a semi-autobiographical play by Tennessee Williams, is Black Swan State Theatre Company’s Production of this American classic, performed nightly at 7.30 until Saturday 28^th March. There are several matinees.

              Tom Wingfield (Steve Turner) is a warehouse worker in St. Louis during the ‘30s depression, and the play starts with Tom standing on the fire escape terrace of his home listening to the blues sax music (Graeme Blevins and Paul Grabowsky) drifting up from the night club below. As he relates the start of his story, his overbearing, manipulating mother (Gillian Jones) calls him to the dinner table. The hate is immediately obvious in his eyes. He is desperate to leave home and all the petty squabbles, but his sister Laura (Melanie Munt) who has ‘a little defect’ adores and needs him. Laura has had every ounce of self-confidence sucked from her, by her control-freak mother. Laura has trouble even speaking to anyone and so finds sanctuary caring for the animals in her glass menagerie. If Tom were leave, what would happen to this fragile sister? Could his conscience allow him to desert her, just as his father had deserted them 20 years earlier?

              The mother decides that it is time for Laura to have a ‘gentleman caller’, and Tom is ordered to find someone. He invites a workmate (Myles Pollard) around one evening for dinner. Will this be the answer to all of their prayers?

The set (Adam Gardnir) is designed in Picasso’s cubist style, linking it to the references of Guernica in the script. It has mainly Perspex floors, walls and ceilings, all with grossly distorted perspective depicting the chaos in the family structure. This innovative and very effective set also gave the impression that the characters were glass animals in a glass case. With so many reflecting surfaces, the lighting problem for Jon Buswell must have been a nightmare but the final result was superb.

Director Kate Cherry decided to go for the original script, full of raw, politically incorrect dialogue, instead of sweetening it up as so often happens. The whole cast was outstanding. Here, Steve Turner tackles yet another genre magnificently, but it was Melanie Munt in the second act who stole the play. The candlelit scene was one of the most delightfully tender moments that I ever seen in the theatre.

This play will be a sell-out.