Left – Catherine McGraffin, Vanessa Downing and Eric Beecroft. Cover – Tom Stokes and Eric Beecroft. Photos – Natalie Boog.Tom is a young man who feels trapped. Trapped by his mundane job in a shoe warehouse while dreaming of being a poet, trapped in a dingy apartment where his mother ceaselessly upbraids him like a child despite being his dependent, trapped by the responsibility to likewise support his sister who is rendered a shut-in by a limp and severe social anxiety. To try and escape it all Tom goes to the movies all night, every night… or does he?
The Glass Menagerie explores Tennessee Williams’ familiar preoccupations with depression, longing, frustration, disappointment and delusion, populated by deeply flawed human beings who walk the razor’s edge between beguiling and repellent, complex and caricatured, obtuse and identifiable. One of Williams’ great gifts is to bring you into the midst of these intensely problematic relationships at a point by which old destructive patterns are clearly well entrenched, and things are about to dramatically come to a head. You get the feeling that these snarky, uncomfortable domestic scenes have been played out a hundred times before, and you just happen to be a fly on the wall for the night when it all goes to hell.
That said, if you are unfamiliar with The Glass Menagerie, it should be noted that this play does not have the fireworks you may expect from other recent mainstage productions of his work. Not here, the smashed plates and rape scene of A Streetcar Named Desire, nor the explosive confrontations to decide the fate of a dynasty in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. This is a far more sedate, subtle piece, in which the stakes at play may seem as though small potatoes by comparison, but are no less emotionally devastating to the players involved.
Indeed, this tight four-hander is well suited to the intimate stage of the Ensemble Theatre, as these starkly different personalities brood, bluster, cower and smarm their way through an evening in which hopes are raised and dashed, former glories pitiably clung to, and secret dreams must choose to escape or be smothered. It is a play not of venomous broadsides but rather of brittle tension, slowly turning the screw, excruciatingly at times, because every time things appear to be looking up you just know it isn’t going to turn out well.
However, much like the action which precedes it, the ending isn’t a bang, although not quite a whimper so much as a sudden epilogue. Rather than opt for as stunning confrontation or reversal of fortunes, Williams’ awkward dinner party ends, well, awkwardly – and goes out on a rather swift and narratively unsatisfying dénouement, reflecting perhaps that sometimes in life toxic relationships don’t spectacularly implode so much as just end because one party simply moves on. For some, it may be an unsatisfying conclusion to a slow burn of a play, but it seems true to the comparatively low-key story that was being told.
Playing on an uncommonly expansive set for an Ensemble production, the cast delivers generally good if somewhat mixed performances. Tom Stokes as Tom is the weakest of the group, having a resonably engaging presence but failing to convey much more than the tip of his character’s iceberg of frustration, a sense of authenticity further undermined by his rather poor accent work.
Catherine McGraffin does well in the somewhat thankless role of the cripplingly shy Laura, and Vanessa Downing is strong as the henpecking, outmoded matriarch Amanda, pinning all her hopes on securing a “Gentleman Caller” for Laura but getting derailed by reliving her own past courtships. These are both parts which could certainly be played with much broader, more histrionic performances, and perhaps would be more memorable for it, yet the relative restraint shown here is a credit also to director Mark Kilmurry, who judiciously avoids any temptation to let things get too camp or painfully melodramatic.
Most striking though is the performance of Eric Beecroft as Jim, the aforementioned “Gentleman Caller” upon whom the plot hinges, almost unbeknownst to himself. It is a deft performance which skirts often imperceptibly between smarm and charm, fully realising this intensely self-possessed character who is so obviously vain and superficial, with considerable tickets on himself, and yet is so polite and almost relentlessly kind that one is constantly struggling to gauge his actual sincerity. Again, it is a role which would be easy to take the obvious route and portray it as boorish or syrupy-slick, but Beecroft balances the nuances masterfully.
All in all, this is a solid but unexceptional production of one of Williams’ less incendiary plays, but is rewarding for those willing to become engrossed by its intriguing characters and their strained relations, which ultimately prove as fragile as the titular crystal ornaments.
Ensemble Theatre presents
THE GLASS MENAGERIE
by Tennessee Williams
Director Mark Kilmurry
Venue: Ensemble Theatre | 78 McDougall Street, Kirribilli, NSW, 2061
Dates: 17 July – Aug 10, 2013
Tickets: $30 – $72
Bookings: 02 9929 0644 | www.ensemble.com.au
