The Glass Menagerie tells of a family bound by love yet paralysed by their circumstances. This is an acclaimed production of Tennessee Williams's semi-autobiographical, mid-20th century classic, directed by Atri Banerjee, who won the Stage Debut Award in 2019. The earliest example of a ‘memory play’, it is a vivid musing on family intimacy and yearning for escape and a pioneer of the now ubiquitous ‘unreliable narrator’.
OUR VERDICT
★★★★★
This production made its debut at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. It stars Geraldine Somerville (Gosford Park) as the nostalgic, faded matriarch, Amanda.
The main narrator, of whose recollections we are wise to be suspicious, is her son Tom, played here by promising newcomer Kasper Hilton-Hille. He escapes from oppressive domesticity to the movies (although we suspect of him other, less wholesome activities) while his sickly sister Laura (Natalie Kimmerling), withdraws into her music and her collection of glass animals.
We mostly feel for Laura, which is unsurprising, as Williams himself stayed faithful to his own disabled sister. The piece is saturated with heavy symbolism.
Together, they imagine the unlikely possibilities of life beyond the shabby home they share, which, we learn, sits across the alleyway from a dancehall.
For the American Dream to thrive, many must never attain it
For the American Dream to thrive, many must never attain it. Yet hope appears in the form of Tom’s workmate, Jim, (Zacchaeus Kayode) whom he brings home for a blind date with Laura. Amanda seizes on this opportunity for their collective redemption. You can guess how it all turns out.
Hilton-Hille is lively and convincing as Tom, a fantasist and possibly a cad, dreaming of ‘change and adventure’ whilst working in a shoe warehouse. Of course it had to be shoes; his existential question is should he stay, or should he walk (like his Daddad did). Kimmerling’s Laura has an impressive presence despite her small frame; she fills the stage with a paradoxical, shy sickliness.
Kayode exudes a warmth that enables you to almost forgive his Jim for the way (spoiler alert!) he, like everyone else, ultimately disappoints. And of course, Geraldine Somerville shines in her murderous motherhood.
One thing we learn is that Williams seems to be ambivalent about mothers. Yet Amanda loves her children and yearns, perhaps too hard, for their progress. Who was it who said with hefty irony that ‘a mother’s place is in the wrong’? After all, it was the dad who disappeared, and he seems to get less of a hard time for it.
Amanda loves her children and yearns, perhaps too hard, for their progress
The simple staging of this production shines ever more brightly through time, and by the second act, its spaciousness lends refreshing air and light to what might otherwise be a drab claustrophobia. An enormous, revolving, flashing neon sign sits atop a wide, slanted ellipse. And that’s it, really. One illuminated word, ‘Paradise’, reigns above everything throughout, so close yet always out of reach.
Some may see this messaging as a little too on the nose, yet when the action culminates in a fantasy dance number, the result is luminous.
The sound design also confounds convention. Violins play almost continuously and telephone calls are dramatically amplified; it is pleasingly immersive, if sometimes a little too loud, at the cost of being able to hear the actors.
The tiny glass animals are generously spread around the circle, rather than in a single display case, as would generally be done. They refract the ‘shattered rainbows’, to quote Tom, of hope and aspiration that hold everyone in thrall. The Glass Menagerie is a delicate, bright and beautiful thing, and although the characters remain so profoundly disappointed, this production lives up to glittering expectations.
The Glass Menagerie is at the Rose Theatre, Kingston until May 4th. Visit: rosetheatre.org
