You can spot a Tennessee Williams play a mile away – the overbearing, faded Southern former belle of the ball who desperately clings to her illustrious memories alongside one or more tortured men, most of whom exhibit some deep-seated frustration arising from their sexuality or life trajectory.
The histrionic displays, the impassioned throwbacks to a dusted era, the simmering tensions which boil slowly and explosively to the surface are a trademark of his work.
The Glass Menagerie is probably Williams’s most personal work – autobiographical to an extent. It is, for me, probably Williams’s most subtle and bittersweet piece. That this production carries off this dramatic pathos with such conviction is down to John Tiffany’s direction.
Playing almost like a black and white film, with a stark but effective design (with only a wine-red sofa for contrast) by Bob Crowley and set to a mood-inducing score by Nico Muhly, the show slow-burns its way to a ravishing climax.
What’s a first rate show without a first rate cast? Cherry Jones blazes the stage with a tour-de-force performance as Amanda Wingfield, the family matriarch floating through the harsh reality of her current life on the memories of her privileged and popular days of her youth. With rancid sugar lacing her rapier tongue, she takes out her frustrations on her hapless son, Tom (played to withering perfection by Michael Esper) who is trying to become a writer while supporting the family through a dead-end job in a shoe factory.
Kate O’Flynn evokes sympathy and frustration with her Laura – cripplingly shy, unable to clamber out of the mental and physical box she has relegated herself into.
Finally, Brian J Smith plays the charming, almost bird-like “gentleman caller” on whom the family pins their hope as a suitor for Laura.
Together, the entire team managed to bring theatrical bliss to the stage.
Rarely has a Tennessee Williams play (or production of one) made me laugh, angry, sad, frustrated and elated all in one sitting. The critics are right to rave about this show. It is theatre at its finest. Miss it at your peril.
The Glass Menagerie plays a limited run at the Duke of York’s Theatre until April 29th.