The Glass Menagerie | 25 – 30 June 2012

By Tennessee Williams. Directed by Paul Marshall.

Tom brings a work colleague, Jim, to meet Amanda, his mother and former ‘Southern Belle’, and Laura, his insecure and slightly crippled sister who is absorbed by her collection of glass animals. Amanda is desperate to find a husband for Laura – but is Jim the answer to Amanda’s prayers?

It is a sensitive piece of drama – an intimate, absorbing and heartbreaking personal drama which examines how fragile the human heart can be, and how easily it can be broken.

The Glass Menagerie won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play in 1945 when it was premiered on Broadway.

Production photos & reviews below.

Cast
Older Tom Wingfield                                      Del Stone
Amanda Wingfield (Tom’s Mother)              Samantha Elgar
Young Tom Wingfield                                     Ian-Paul Munday
Laura Wingfield (Tom’s Sister)                     Jessica-Ann Jenner
Jim O’Connor (The Gentleman Caller)        Geoff Dillon

Backstage
Set design & decor                       Adrian Pope
Stage Director                              John Heather
Set construction                           John Heather, Andrew Heather, Tony Jenner, T62 members
Lighting Design                            Andrew Herbert
Sound Design                               Ian James
Projection                                     Andrew Herbert, Ian James
Technical support                       David Hart, James Quinn
Props                                             Sally Guttridge
Wardrobe                                     Margaret Uzzell, Joan Martin
Make-up & hair                           Jean Golder, Christine Lever, Penny Vetterlein
Prompt                                         Heather London

House Manager                           John Heather
Refreshments                             Lynne Craig, Audrey Knighton
Raffle                                            Sally Guttridge
Poster/programme design       Graham Copeland
Programme Editor                     John Guttridge
Box Office                                    Margaret Uzzell

THE GLASS MENAGERIE
Reviewed by Peter Steptoe

Tennessee Williams is a major American playwright and this play was the first confirmation of his talent. Reputedly autobiographical it relates the story of a failed marriage in the hard times of the 1930’s.

The narrator is the son of the family who later recalls his memories of those days and his subsequent desertion, for apparently he never returned. This difficult part was expertly played by Del Stone as the older version of Tom Wingfield.

Samantha Elgar was the Southern Belle type of an over doting Mother whom I found somewhat irritating and this is of course a compliment. The accent was believable and the speech pattern very quick but then she had a lot to say. Gentlemen callers were her speciality as a means of entering her daughter into the marriage market.

Her son young Tom Winfield was aggressively played by Ian-Paul Munday which illustrated his frustration at the dead-end job in a shoe warehouse. Jim O’Connor (Geoff Dillon) was the clerk where he worked and though successful at school was subsequently a failure. He was the gentleman caller brought home to dine unaware that it was to meet Laura, Tom’s sister. She was beautifully played by Jessica-Ann Jenner as the shy introverted one. This actress had the rare ability of stillness and her scene with the gentleman caller as she gradually blossomed out was very moving.