Speakupwny.com
Buffalo News, Forums and Opinions
Live Forums and Blogs | Onlinebuffalo.com | Erie County | City of Buffalo 

Last Updated: Jan 14th, 2024 - 09:26:32 

Speakupwny.com 
Development
Editorials
Education
WNY News
Government Waste
Labor & Management
Letters to the Editor
Local Opinions
Local WNY Websites
New Government Structure
Politics
Preservation
Press Releases
Taxes and Fees
WNY Health
WNY Business
Reviews
Insiders Corner



Reviews

THE GLASS MENAGERIE Jackie Maxwell Studio Theatre/Shaw Festivaleatree
By
Aug 3, 2019, 21:33
Email this article
 Printer friendly page
Shaw Festival
Through October 12
THE GLASS MENAGERIE Jackie Maxwell Studio Theatre/Shaw Festival

Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie” is familiar, the autobiographical tale of frustrated brother, the handicapped sister, the lost-in-memories mother and “the gentleman caller.”
The play’s events shatter a barely functional family and leave the brother, Tom (André Sills), wandering the world as his father did, deliberately losing touch with his family.
“Menagerie” is a tale which starts depressed and gets worse.
This is a lost family barely holding together in the depths of the Depression.
No one knows what to do about the future, so mother Amanda (Allegra Fulton) constantly reaches back to her days as the belle of the ball in Jim Crow Mississippi, with all the racial attitudes that suggests.
Daughter Laura (Julia Course) is not only physically handicapped but seems more than a little mentally ill, with her obsession with her “glass menagerie,” the herd of glass animals she plays with constantly.
Tom wants something better in life and has been preparing to leave, without telling his mother, to the point he’s been paying dues to a seafaring union instead of paying the electric bill from the limited pay of the warehouse job he hates, although in this time he’s lucky to have a job.
Director László Bérczes worked with set designer Balázs Cziegler to install the deliberately cramped set in the stage pit of the Studio Theatre, showing the cramped nature of the family, trapped in a tiny apartment.
The situation blows up when Tom agrees to bring a friend from the warehouse over to meet Laura.
As we learn, he really doesn’t know much about Jim (Jonathan Tan), the co-worker and that’s the detonation of everything in Williams story.
The playwright had progressively worse personal problems in his life and “Menagerie” certainly gives you a few clues to what went wrong.
Jim may be the only person in the cast of four who has a plausibly good life ahead.
The rest?
Not.
Bérczes is working with a strong and very diverse cast in this increasingly depressive play.
If you want to see what’s regarded as one of the great American plays, it’s worth seeing “The Glass Menagerie.”
If you’re looking for light entertainment, try “Brigadoon” or even “The Ladykillers.”

A.W.

© Copyright 2023 - Speakupwny.com
hosted by Online Media, Inc
Buffalo Web Design and Web Hosting

Top of Page

Buffalo Theatre District
Reviews
Latest Headlines




PRELUDE TO A KISS Allendale Theatre/Bellissima Productions
BUFFALO QUICKIES Alleyway Theatre Cabaret
HAMLET Compass Performing Arts Center/Brazen-Faced Varlets
THE POLISH CLEANING LADY'S DAUGHTER African American Cultural Center/Paul Robeson Theatre
NEIGHBORHOOD 3: Requisition of Doom Kavinoky Theatre
FAUCI AND KRAMER Canterbury Woods Performing Arts Center/First Look Buffalo Theatre Company
GRUMPY OLD MEN: The Musical 4410 Bailey Ave, Amherst/O'Connell & Company
THE BOWLING PLAY Shea's Smith Theatre/Second Generation Theatre
BETRAYAL Andrews Theatre/Irish Classical Theatre Company
THE LIGHT FANTASTIC Road Less Traveled Productions
BEAUTIFUL: The Carole King Musical Medaille College/MusicalFare Theatre
THE FOLKS AT HOME Alleyway Theatre
FUNNY GIRL Shea's Buffalo
KINDERTRANSPORT Maxine & Robert Seller Theatre/Jewish Repertory Theatre
REEFER MADNESS THE MUSICAL Shea's Smith Theatre/O'Connell & Company



Buffalo Web hosting and Buffalo Web Design By OnLineMedia, Inc
www.olm1.com

Part of
www.onlinebuffalo.com