A Review: The Glass Menagerie

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams is my all time favorite play. I have posted in the past about a version I saw over in Coronado a bit ago and now I got the chance to see it again in San Diego. Truth be told, I love it so much that I would go see a production even if it was put on by third graders. I have been on a bit of a theater splurge lately and so I could not resist getting a discount ticket. It was playing in Old Town San Diego at a theater I have never been too so I was all excited.

The theater itself was great and I loved the stage and the seating but my admit I was disappointed by the direction. The kept Tom too remote. I know he is writing the play and narrating the play but he is a major part of the play. He is in the thick or it and key to the actions that unfold. His presence is mandatory. In addition Laura was played as childish not child-like. Laura is extremely shy and was extremely sheltered but there is nothing childish about her. Amanda, her mother, even comments in the course of the play itself that "still waters run deep and that child broods too much". Then of course there is Amanda herself. She was the best played character in the play but of course that character is such a tornado of a character, it would be insane to play it any other way.

In addition to the poor direction, the actors were horribly cast. The actor that played Tom was clearly smitten with John Malkovich's portrayal of Tom in that he mimicked it exactly, even right down to that extremely annoying and odd cadence that John Malkovich always speaks in. The actress that played Laura just was unforgivably lost. Laura gets her heartbroken and her innocence shattered, like her special little glass unicorn was shattered into being a normal horse, but she does not have a breakdown and hysterical fit over it. Laura is much more intense and internal. You should feel Laura's heartbreak in your own timorous heart but that does not mean you need to see it with your eyes. It is not what truly transpires. Every character in that play has heart break and although it is a stage play, you do not see it - you experience it.

All that being said I am so happy I got to go. I would definitely check out other productions at this theater. As a matter a fact I heard that they but on an amazing Christmas show so I will probably be back very soon. And although this production failed, I was glad to see the directors try different avenues. It made it curious for me. But I do wish that they stuck with Laura's heartbreak as a mechanism to break mine as opposed to over production. The words are there - each one perfection by Tennessee - just let them do their work.