Blue roses

On Saturday night there I went to see Strathclyde Theatre Group's production of Tennessee Williams classic play The Glass Menagerie.  This of course is a play I am rather familiar with myself as I appeared in a production of it myself and played one of the characters in it, Tom Wingfield, who is the narrator of the play.  So here is a bit more about the storyline of the play.

Set in the depression era of 1930s, Tom Wingfield, is a young man who aspires to be a writer, but works in a warehouse, and lives a frustrated home life with his domineering mother, Amanda Wingfield, and his older and painfully shy sister Laura, who has a slight limp and dropped out of typing school, and now spends her time playing with her glass animal colletion and old records.  Tom himself longs to escape his mundane life at home and from his tedious work at the warehouse, but he frequently rows with his mother, who insists that Tom try and find her a "gentleman caller" so she can eventually marry.  After much pestering from Amanda, Tom eventually asks one of his colleagues at the warehouse, Jim O'Connor to dinner.  On telling this to Amanda, she is delighted, but Jim soon appears to be the boy that Laura liked from high school, and Laura being a shy as she is refuses to meet him, however after nearly fainting coming to the dinner table when Jim, Tom and Amanda are seated, Laura gets to know Jim and they share the evening together.  But as things appear to be going smoothly, Jim has a revelation to share with Laura, which will result in the Wingfield's lives being turned upside down.

STG have done a fine job with their production of the classic Tennessee Williams play, with one of the stalwarts of the theatre group, Barry Ward playing Tom Wingfield.  Barry put in an excellent performance as Tom, and he delivered Tom's speeches with a nice leisurely pace, that gives the audience time to take in what he is saying.  Barry's final speech is also very nicely played as he cracks with emotion over leaving his family and particularly his sister behind.  Barry also got the idea of Tom really well, despite the fact he appears to be the central character in the play, he is in fact the least most central, as it really revolves around Amanda and Laura, as Tom drifts in and out of the play, its all from his memory of course. 

Rhona Cathcart also did a fine job as Amanda Wingfield, although admittedly some of her performance does come across as being a little bit too faux and theatrical (well it is the theatre).  Amanda is a tough character for any actress I'm sure as she is a strong proud woman, but she is also very insecure as she looks back on what her life use to be, as she was once the belle of the proverbial ball, she also carries the most emotional scars of the play, with her husband having left her when her children were young.  But Rhona did provide much of the play's humour and the scene where she comes out wearing her dress is really funny.  Mandy Edgar as Laura too was very good, and Laura is probably the key to the play, and Mandy nicely captured Laura's fragility, and she shared some nice moments with Amanda and Jim.  My only gripe with Laura in the play was when she gave Jim the unicorn with the broken horn at the end, as she walked away and said to keep it as a savouneir, its a really poignant moment, which would have worked even better if she stood still next to Jim when she said it.  But I guess since that's the way it was played in the production I was in, it makes me a bit biased towards other production's choices, but there is no right or wrong way, it boils down to how you see it I guess.  

And then there is Colin Healy as Jim, who played the part quite well, although I hate to say it, he probably is the weak link in the chain (sorry Colin!).  Colin definitely conveyed Jim's confident nature well, but I did find his accent a bit hard to understand at times, and the performance was a bit one note.  However this isn't a slight against Colin in any way, as I have seen him in other plays and he has been excellent, and his costume was great, as he really appeared as the cocky confident business-like figure, replete with gangster looking shoes! :-)

And credit definitely also deserves to go out to the director Derek Banner, who made good use of some period music, even using a violinst for the "fiddle in the wings".  I also like his use of the projector showing images of the actors, and old fashioned photos, also the father figure (was that Tennessee Williams???? Not sure).  The use of the curtains was really good too, particularly in the 3rd scene where Tom and Amanda have that massive row, and we see their shadows, which was excellent (it made me wish we did something like that when I did the show!).  Music wise, Derek also made really good use of the Foo Fighter's song "Home", which actually fitted in really nicely with the setting of the play, and it sets up Tom's memory of his home life, as he thinks back to what was once.  

Sooooo that's another critique over with, STG's next play funnily enough will be Abigail's Party, which I did with the Patter Merchants group as well.  Funny coincidence that, I think they are copying us with their choice of plays! ;-)

Right that's it for now.