The play is set in St. Louis, Missouri, although this production could well be set in almost any American urban area. A telephone is on the stage though it is never used or referred to, in which case, why is it there at all? I usually try to be supportive of productions that rankle theatre purists but this one came across as a production that was throwing all sorts of things at a proverbial wall and hoping that some of those things might stick. To put it another way, it was trying too hard.
At times, the stage was busy for the sake of busyness. For example, in one scene, someone says they’re leaving, and as far as could be reasonably deduced, they leave stage right. But someone who may or may not be the same character enters stage left, walks across and leaves stage right again. And again. Simultaneously, there was dialogue going on, some of which I missed because I was trying to work out who the mystery character was – much of the show is in relative darkness because it goes with the idea of this being a ‘memory play’, being told some years after the events in question.
Some background music, which I should really refer to as foreground music, such was its dominance, was so persistent in early scenes that, combined with the aforementioned relative darkness, I wondered if these characters lived in an apartment – or a nightclub. The music was distinctly absent in the second half. If the text was allowed to shine largely unaccompanied after the interval, why not before?
There might well be a lack of subtlety at the start, when Tom Wingfield (Tom Varey) directly addresses the audience, as the show’s narrator, but then there are quite a few other shows I can think of that could do with this level of introduction and context. The other characters are Tom’s mother, Amanda (Sharon Small) and his elder sister Laura (Eva Morgan), and a former high school acquaintance of Tom and Laura, Jim O’Connor (Jad Sayegh). The accents are so inconsistent Laura is sometimes called Laura and sometimes called Lara – no wonder she didn’t always respond immediately.
Interestingly, Laura calls herself a “cripple”, though in this production Amanda is quite right to reply that whatever her (Laura’s) condition is, it’s barely noticeable. She was indeed able to walk unaided and with no obvious indication of a limp, save for one isolated moment, and even that could be put down to heightened emotions because Jim, whom she had not seen for some years, has been invited to dinner.
It was good to see a Tennessee Williams memory play in a small theatre space, before the venue becomes a memory in itself, as it was awarded £700,000 from the Capital Investment Programme, run by Arts Council England, and has received additional funding from other sources. The money will be used to refurbish and extend the venue, doubling the seating capacity, and with ‘cushioned seats’ to replace their current plastic ones (hooray).
As for this production, parts of the set looked like a contemporary arts exhibit, and in an intimate space, the smell of cigarette smoke, mostly from Tom’s tobacco habit, lingered longer than I would have liked. Some of the dialogue was specific to the regional setting, with references to ‘DAR meetings’ (the Daughters of the American Revolution has a website with more details for those who want them) and working ‘like a turk’, which has nothing to do with citizens of Turkey but refers, at least in this instance, to burning the midnight oil to meet a hard deadline. But even in this relatively small theatre space, the objects in the glass menagerie of the show’s title were too small to appreciate. Less can sometimes be more, and this production had so many pops and whizzes they ended up being distractions rather than useful additions.
Review by Chris Omaweng
“How beautiful it is, and how easily it can be broken.”
It is evening. Tom Wingfield is smoking in the alley outside the apartment where he grew up. Through a window, he watches his mother and his sister.
Tonight is one of those nights you remember forever. Tonight, someone special is coming to dinner. Tonight, there will be a dance. Tonight, you might fall in love. Tonight, everything could change.
Sharon Small – Amanda Wingfield
Tom Varey – Tom Wingfield
Eva Morgan – Laura Wingfield
Jad Sayegh – Jim O’Connor
Tennessee Williams – Writer
Jay Miller – Director
Cécile Trémolières – Set Designer
Lambdog1066 – Costume Designer
Sarah Readman – Lighting Designer
Josh Anio Grigg – Composer and Sound Designer
Dominique Hamilton – Wigs, Hair and Makeup Designer
Sung Im Her – Movement Director
Arthur Carrington – Casting Director
THE GLASS MENAGERIE
The Yard Theatre
28 February to 10 May 2025
