Review: The Glass Menagerie at Clwyd Theatr Cymru in Mold

Oct 5 2009 by Michael Green, Chester Chronicle

THE GLASS MENAGERIE/Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Mold, until October 10

REVIEW/by Michael Green

THE innovative programming of Clwyd Theatr Cymru once again resulted in an evening to remember courtesy of two productions in one night highlighting the considerable talents of 20th century playwright Tennessee Williams.

Director Kate Wasserberg’s take on Williams’ breakthrough work The Glass Menagerie is already proving to be one of the high points of the year at the Mold venue.

But on Saturday night, there was more than just this to savour in the intimate surroundings of the Emlyn Williams Theatre – the perfect setting for the intensity of the domestic drama that formed the main event.

Just before it, actor John Moraitis provided an illuminating reading from Tennessee Williams’ own memoirs which was every bit as compelling as any exchange from one of his celebrated plays.

The description of Marlon Brando arriving on Williams’ doorstep to read the role of Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire for the very first time was artistic history in the making – brought down to earth with a thud when you are told he fixed Williams’ power and plumbing before doing so!

But there were also accounts of how Williams coped with reactions to his homosexuality and his own battles with depression which gave a clear insight into some of the grim bitterness and resentment which beset a number of his characters.

This was the perfect set up for The Glass Menagerie itself, staged mostly in the seedy living and dining room of former Southern belle Amanda, her dreamer son Tom and painfully shy daughter Laura.

Tom yearns for a life of adventure in far-flung places (a characteristic inherited from the father who abandoned his family years earlier) while Amanda harbours ambitions for her daughter to be as popular as she once was and marry a “gentleman caller”.

Laura, however, dreams of little more than staying out of the limelight and concentrating on her menagerie of glass animals, every bit as delicate physically as she is emotionally.

Into this maelstrom of tensions steps strapping Jim – Laura’s first ever gentleman caller – whom the girl had a crush on at high school and who now represents everything Amanda wants for her girl.

The overpowering personality of Amanda all too often dominates productions of The Glass Menagerie – I last saw this happen when the mighty Brenda Blethyn played the role at Manchester’s Royal Exchange a couple of years ago.

But Wasserberg goes to great lengths to emphasise the ensemble nature of the work and manages to turn the key scene when Jim and Laura are alone into the play’s highlight this time round.

To watch Laura go from someone crippled as much by her reticence as her physical disability to a girl who blossoms at last under the attentions of a handsome man is extraordinary, especially as played with such finesse and delicacy as Lisa Diveney brings to the role.

It is her portrayal that makes the scene even more heartbreaking than usual when Jim shatters her hopes with his revelation.

Teresa Banham successfully evokes the fading charms of a woman who could have won any man but chose her eventual husband badly while Hywel John skilfully emphasises the wry humour of narrator Tom and Sam Massey brings a real warmth and likeability to the sometimes thankless role of Jim.

The Glass Menagerie can be seen at Clwyd Theatr Cymru until October 10. Ring the box office 0845 330 3565 or visit www.clwyd-theatr-cymru.co.uk.