Tennessee's tale is emotionally charged

Aug 5 2010 by Alan Sykes, The Journal

The Glass Menagerie, Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, until November 3

SET during the depression, Tennessee Williams' play tells the story of the Wingfield family – mother Amanda, son Tom and daughter Laura, the father having deserted them years before.

Amanda is a former southern belle fallen on hard times. Yearning for the days of her beauty and comfort, she cannot reconcile herself to a life of poverty.

She is also desperate for her daughter to find a husband and avoid the fate of becoming a woman “without a nest, eating the crust of humility” all her life.

Tom keeps the family afloat – just – by working in a shoe warehouse on a tiny wage, while dreaming of becoming a writer or a soldier.

This is possibly autobiographical, as Tennessee Williams also worked for a shoe company in St Louis.

Daughter Laura is a tragic, shy, agoraphobic girl who lives in a harmless fantasy world with her collection of little glass animals.

Maggie Tagney is excellent as Amanda, conveying her frustrations and impractical ambitions in a smoky southern drawl.

Adam O’Brian is Tom, noisily coming to the end of his tether as the unwilling breadwinner, before “attempting to find in motion what was lost in space”.

Vanessa Johnson’s Laura conveys just the right mix of wistful vulnerability. The fourth character is Jim, who Amanda hopes will marry Laura. James Hogg has him come over as amiable and charming.

This is a searing, emotionally intense and thought-provoking production, claustrophobically filling up the space of the Studio and subtly fulfilling Tom’s early promise that “in memory everything seems to happen to music”.