Blue
Roses
by
Michael Dresdner
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| L to R: Niclas Olson, Jess Weaver, Dayna Childs All photos by Tim Johnston |
Bring up
Tennessee Williams to most theatre folk and you’ll likely hear the term
depressing in short order, and that epithet is well earned. The Glass
Menagerie, superbly directed by Micheal O’Hara at Lakewood Playhouse, is no
exception, but there is far more to this finely crafted, emotionally nuanced
play that makes it worth producing (and watching) again and again.
With
just four characters, Williams offers up a wider array of emotions, challenges,
and complex human interactions than you would think possible. With very
deliberate and measured pacing, director O’Hara and an outstanding ensemble
cast made sure none of it got lost.
Set in
the depression, the play is presented as the reminiscences of Tom Wingfield
(Niclas Olson), before he, like his father, fled the family to join the Merchant
Marine. The Wingfields are a broken, dysfunctional, financially struggling
family. Tom and his sister Laura (Jess Weaver), both in their twenties, live
with their overbearing and micromanaging mother Amanda (Dayna Childs) in the
long shadow of an absent father who abandoned them sixteen years ago to roam
the world.
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| L to R: Dayna Childs, Jess Weaver |
Matriarch
Amanda clings desperately to her long gone, elegant Southern plantation life, a
past when she was young, beautiful, and greatly adored by many “gentlemen
callers.” She loves her children, and wants them to thrive in what’s turned
into a terrifyingly gritty world, but sees them as misguided and flawed, and
thus in need of her constant redirection. Alternately cajoling and berating them,
she tries to force them into her vision of a successful family, as much out of
love as desperation. Instead, she pushes them away from her and more deeply
into their own self-destructive coping mechanisms.
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| Jess Weaver |
Tom,
whose distasteful warehouse job provides their main support, smokes (and
possibly drinks) too much, and spends countless hours “at the movies” avoiding
the painful family dynamic that he is powerless to fix and loathe to tolerate. Laura, partially lame
but cripplingly shy, sneaks around the house hiding from the awful present, and
her painfully humiliating past, behind her Victrola records and her collection,
a menagerie of tiny glass animals.
At his
mother’s insistence, Tom brings a co-worker named Jim O’Connor (Nick
Fitzgerald) home to dinner to meet his sister. He is none other than Laura’s
secret crush from high school. In what unfolds as perhaps the best and most
sensitively acted scene of the play, upbeat, optimistic, self-improving Jim manages to drag
Laura out of her shell and provide her, and the audience, with their first
taste of real hope for something better. It’s a beautiful scene, and the two do
an amazing job of creating something poignant yet believable.
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| L to R: Jess Weaver, Nick Fitzgerald |
But in
Williams’ inimitable fashion, it all gets dashed on the rocks of an unsuspected
and relentless reality.
A
multi-level set by James Venturini, with props and set dressing by Karrie
Morrison, creates the appropriately dismal home of a woman clinging to the last
vestiges of imagined elegance. It’s ably aided by subdued and shadowy lighting
by Aaron Mohs-Hale, and spot-on costumes by Rachel Dimmig and Blayne Fujita.
Lakewood’s artistic director John Munn handled the sound design very adroitly,
with period music and such sound effects as an old time running projector
overlaying Tom’s narration as his memories of the family unfold. Stage manager
Alyshia Collins kept the complex interplay running smoothly.
I think
the real question for audiences comes down to “do I want to see a story that is
ultimately sad, but expresses itself through a wealth of beauty, touching
connections, and real, heartfelt emotion.” Thanks to an excellent director and
cast, this production comes off not as depressing, but rather as a moving and
compassionate glimpse into one family’s challenged life. Some of that, of
course, is due to Williams’ outstanding writing, but against all odds, it was a
surprisingly enjoyable play to watch.
The
Glass Menagerie
Feb 16
to Mar 11, 2018
Lakewood
Playhouse
