The Glass Menagerie
The Glass Menagerie
By Tennessee Williams
Directed by David Karl Lee
Orlando Shakespeare Theater, Orlando FL</strong>
Our real job in life it to forget. What we think we remember may or may not have happened, and any proof as to actual events is forensic at best. Amanda Wingfield (Anne Herring) obsesses on her glorious girlhood beset with gentlemen callers and the opportunity to offer her virginity to any young planter she desires. How could she know the charming man she chose would ditch her for Mazatlan and a life apart? Amanda raised crippled Laura (Katherine Michelle Tanner) and ambitious Tom (Jim Ireland) to support her financially and emotionally. Amanda is anything but loveable; she can pump more guilt per minute than the toughest Jewish mother and Tom’s about had it with her. A warehouse job and sleazy bars are his only entertainment. Until he gets a mate for Laura, mom won’t let him join the merchant marine and get that tattoo he always wanted. In desperation he invites his boss Jim O’Connor (Brad Roller) over for dinner, hoping for a quick mating and permission to weigh anchor. O’Connor is spoken for, leaving Amanda and Laura to whither in the bluster of a St. Louis winter. Tom is luckier; he can look forward to a quick death by U-boat.
Scenic Designer Bob Phillips gives us a smoke filled theatre setting us clearing in William’s nether world of fading memories. The smoke is ironic, as present day smoke free rules turn this 2-pack-a-performance into a pantomime of Tom just missing ignition on his lucky strikes. That’s one of the few departures from reality in this dream story – real rain falls on the windows, the wallpaper is hand stenciled blue roses, and I think I hear real 78 RPM shellac on the Victrola. We even forgo the slide show that struck me when I first read this play in High School. While Herring alternates stridence with a withering Southern Charm, Tom plays a hard boiled detective who’s seen it all and knows it won’t get better. Together they watch Amanda’s hopes for Laura setting into a rust pile as Tom prepares to abandon this sinking home. The Winfield’s shows love at its worst – clinging, manipulative, and unproductive. There’s bitter laughter from the audience, this sort of pain is everywhere. “Glass Menagerie” is more entertaining than 3 celebrity drug rehabs.
For more information on Orlando Shakespeare Theater, visit
