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Date: Fri 02-Apr-1999

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Date: Fri 02-Apr-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: DONNAG

Quick Words:

Menagerie-Tennessee-Williams

Full Text:

THEATRE REVIEW: An Irritating, Unexciting "Menagerie" Of Characters

(with cut)

By June April

NEW HAVEN -- Playing through April 10, Yale Repertory Theatre's latest

endeavor is not the most exciting presentation of Tennessee Williams' first

successful play, The Glass Menagerie , a classic piece of southern Americana.

Typically Williams, the characters are lost and anguished. They are dreamers,

manipulators and forlorn souls, often painfully damaged emotionally and as

fragile as the glass figurines that fulfill the life of the crippled Laura.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright tells of a dysfunctional family in this

story. The father, whose smiling photograph is the only vestige of his

paternalism, having left his family years and years ago, is the presence that

has left behind an embittered wife and two unhappy offspring.

Alternately smothering and verbally abusing her children, Amanda Wingfield is

the harbinger to Blanche DuBois: a woman living a delusional past, looking for

all the world like a caricature. Played by Laura Esterman, it seems director

Joseph Chaikin departed from Tennessee Williams' expressly stated

characterization: "...her life is paranoia ... she has endurance and a kind of

heroism, and though her foolishness makes her unwittingly cruel at times,

there is tenderness..."

Artifice and barely suppressed rage might better describe this interpretation

of mother Amanda, sans any hint of tenderness. She hardly comes across as a

sympathetic character, more like a mother bent on destroying her young rather

than understanding or protecting them. It's a facade of a life.

As the emotionally and physically crippled Laura Wingfield, Kali Rocha offers

an exaggerated, albeit sensitive portrayal. She often reminds one of a naughty

child standing in the corner, cowering in fear and embarrassment. Her love and

almost total focus of her glass animal collection is the most fragile of

escapes from the hopelessness of her life.

Determined to follow in the flown footsteps of his father, Tom Wingfield is

the sympathetic member of the family. He recognizes that he is a dreamer,

drifter and defeatist and accepts his lot, with the acknowledged guilt of

having abandoned his cherished sister. Credibly acted by Wayne Maugans, this

character is most interesting and believable.

The hoped-for salvation, the Prince Charming of her fairytale fantasy, Jim

O'Connor (a/k/a The Gentleman Caller, portrayed by Jay Snyder) is Amanda

Wingfield's last and only hope to unload her daughter. A co-worker from the

factory where Tom is employed, this pleasant young man went to the same high

school as Laura and Tom. For a moment he lifts Laura out her world of

futility, and lets her see possibilities of happiness.

Lighting designer Robert Perry largely captured the philosophical intent of

light-painting envisioned by the playwright. With the dominant and engulfing

petals of the blue roses that echo the story, scenic designer Alexander Dodge

is perhaps the true star of this production.

Playwright Christopher Durang's parody of The Glass Menagerie , entitled For

Whom the Southern Belle Tolls , was a preferable experience. So use that

insight to judge this review.

Mr Durang attended Yale School Drama, where he first wrote his spoof. His

creation, Mr Durang once stated, served as a release for "what I felt after

seeing this play for what seemed the 100th time ... there is something about

sweet, sensitive Laura that seems to have gotten on my nerves." Ditto to that

and throw in an extra dose on behalf of the irritating mother Amanda.

Tickets and information can be obtained via the Yale Repertory box office, at

the corner of Chapel and York Streets in New Haven; telephone 432-1234.

Performances are Monday through Saturday evenings with three matinees

remaining.

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