By Ernest Kearney — In 1944 The Glass Menagerie established its young playwright, Tennessee Williams as a major new talent in the world of theatre, and of his 70 plays it remains one of his most highly respected and most often staged.
In this autobiographical work, Williams treats the past of his characters—especially the hope they have laden that past with—like a creature of the undead, hammering a stake through its heart.
It would be a recurring theme in his works that hope never lays in the past and probably not even in the future.
I had expected the International City Theatre to handle the painful tale of Amanda Wingfield—the aging Southern belle who is smothering her children Tom and Laura under her own persistent but perished dreams—with their typical aplomb.
It is, after all, the very sort of work that their craftsman-like, if occasionally by the numbers approach, succeeds with.
Well, not this time.
The failure comes down to the odd coupling of director and scenic designer.
Christopher Scott Murillo has done excellent sets for ICT shows that I quite admired (A Walk in the Woods) and excellent sets of ICT shows that were abysmal (Abigail/1702 – burn this play and feed the flames with the playwright), but I’m hard pressed to recall a set by Murillo that just outright failed the production as thoroughly as the one for this staging of The Glass Menagerie.
The playing areas are divided across at the center stage line with diaphanous white curtains parting them; perhaps with the idea of engaging the “memory play” aspect of the work.
But while one side of the curtains are always being drawn aside, the other half remains rigidly in place, overlaying both the marquee of the Paradise Ballroom and the picture of the paterfamilias, the long absent husband of Amanda and father of Laura and Tom.
Now Williams calls for the father’s picture to fill a prominent position in the Wingfields’ living room, prominent to the point of nearing the status of being the play’s fifth character.
However, to have it on stage in such an overblown size as here, not to mention given to glowing whenever reference is made to the long-gone father, verges on the absurd.
One keeps expecting Vanna White to be positioned in front of it.
(l-r) Ty Mayberry, Emilio Garcia-Sanchez (Photo by Tracey Roman / Courtesy of ICT)
Director John Henry Davis serves as the Burke to Murillo’s Hare in firmly holding the pillow over the face of this production. In the past, Davis has done serviceable work, as on the aforementioned A Walk in the Woods. Yes, perhaps by-the-numbers but nevertheless solid stagings.
However, this staging is far from solid. Think warm Jell-O. On a hot summer day. In the Gobi.
Again, it is by-the-numbers. Unfortunately, the numbers are “1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-11/2 -1-1-1.”
Jennifer Parsons as Amanda is a pro of longstanding and seems to have acquired a shortcut to the lifeboats on this theatrical Titanic; the rest of the cast does not fare as well.
Lizzie Zerebko has the right look as Laura, makes the right choice in not playing her impairment as if in the role of Richard III, but otherwise seems to lack any direction.
As Tom, Ty Mayberry appears to be under the impression he’s doing a musical comedy, and should be ashamed of letting his father’s photo be so misused.
As the gentleman caller, Emilio Garcia-Sanchez boldly leaps into the icy waters surrounding this show with a bowling ball clasped in each hand.
Regretfully the epitaph to this show comes down to a single, damning term; lazy.
(NOTE: In featured imaged (l-r) — Lizzie Zerebko and Jennifer Parsons / Photo by Tracey Roman, Courtesy of ICT)
♦ ♦ ♦
ICT Presents
The Glass Menagerie
On Stage
in the
Beverly O’Neill Theater
at
330 E. Seaside Way,
Long Beach CA 90802
Final Dates
September 8 and 9 Performance Schedule: Sat: 8pm | Sun: 2pm
To Purchase Tickets:
Click HERE
For Additional Information Phone:
Call the Box Office: 562-436-4610 (M-F 9am – 5pm)
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