The Glass Menagerie - Rose, Kingston

It's worth the journey. I saw it this afternoon; it is very good indeed, and Geraldine Somerville is a fascinating Amanda. Tickets are not particularly expensive, and it is not at all difficult to get to.

Should add it ran pretty much to time - so out at just past 10.

In the 1930s, would Laura have used a Walkman to listen to Whitney Houston?

Yes, that's exactly the answer I thought you'd give. So you can willingly suspend disbelief for a Walkman in place of a Victrola, but not for the colour of one actor's skin?

The production isn't "ignoring a key social and racial factor". In a staging that is not anchored to a particular period, as this one isn't, what difference does it make if the production isn't cast entirely with white actors?


 

At the Saturday matinee, I got Row B of the Stalls, which was very good.

What you get will be entirely dependent on what's not sold.

This is SUCH a good production of the play, and in all honesty, I'd have been happy with any seat to see such a magical show.

The spare set, the evocative music, the brilliant acting, all work to create such a dreamy mood that I was absolutely carried away with it.

Often with this play, the second half is great, but the first half just isn't. Here, the whole piece works, making for peak Tennessee Williams, in my opinion, delicate and deeply moving.

Some spoilers follow. . .

From the moment Kasper Hilton-Hilles's Tennessee Williams avatar, Tom, took the stage with the famous line that he had "tricks" in his pocket, gesturing to a giant neon "Paradise" sign, spinning above him, we got all the "truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion" we could wish for.

The spinning sign is nowhere near as obtrusive as when directors spin the actual stage, and it creates a kind of hypnotic atmosphere conducive to a memory play, even as it refers to the Paradise Club next to where Tom and his family live.

As the narrator, Hilton-Hille really captivates, capturing the wistful, yearning, mournful, elegaic mood, which subtle background music enhances greatly. This is the second play I've seen in which Hilton-Hille has to deal with a smothering mother, after "That Face" at the Orange Tree, and he's been brilliant in both.

But it's Geraldine Somerville who really makes the difference here. Her character can be so affected, you stop believing in her, but Somerville does here what Patsy Ferran did for Blanche Dubois, making Amanda Wingfield feel three dimensional, her tender and delusional sides understated and in balance. The play is all about her, before the interval, and it's so well done that I really cared about both her and her relationships with her 2 children.

The part after the interval, the part with the Gentleman Caller, that part of the play always works in my experience, because it's just such a poignant scene so vividly written, but with a first half that actually works as well, the whole play feels like one great heartbreaking magic trick perfectly executed by 4 wonderful actors and a wonderful director.

My only objection to this production is Whitney Houston's "One Moment in Time" butting it's head in. That song is like a brash Eighties Bull smashing it's way into a delicate China Shop of timeless soothing mood music.

I get that the song represents a potential for escape, but this feels more like Simpson and Bruckheimer booted the director and hired Tony Scott for one scene. I wondered if Elbow's "One Day Like This" might be better, avoiding the Eighties (which we understood to be cheesy even in the Eighties lol).

But realistically, if they'd have chosen something more Thirties, like "Over The Rainbow," I think that would have had the requisite politeness not to disturb the magnificent melancholy illusion of the production.

From Row B, I particularly loved the Jonquil Flowers and Glass Figures placed around the stage at a certain point, which I imagined that Amanda and Laura Wingfield must have placed there personally, to ward off evil spirits the way witches surround a room with salt.

Anyway, as I said, for me this is peak Tennessee Williams, bar one song choice, which wasn't to my taste.

4 and a half stars of magic from me.

Mine was bang in the centre of the Stalls, 7th row.  A seat usually valued at £45.  But it's a very inclusive auditorium - you'd be fine anywhere.

Agreed - get to Waterloo or Vauxhall, and mainline train is about 25 mins.  

I think on this particular show they may have split the London audience, as it's also playing Alexandra Palace in mid May.  The first performances at that venue have seats at £27 and it's sold really well, if the seatplan is an indication (after that the prices shoot up).  I like the auditorium relationship to the stage at Rose Kingston, so preferred to see it there.

Didn't book for this as previous experience of TW plays made me swear "never again"; I couldn't even sit through the whole of the last one I attempted to see, which I think was (Orpheus Descending?) at the Menier. But the reviews for this are so good that I'm wondering whether a quality production would win me over, or whether it's really the plays themselves which are simply never going to be for me. They all seem to have in common an assortment of characters whose lives are disappointing or disastrous and who spend several hours wringing their hands over their unavoidable fate without anything ever happening. No-one else can answer my question for me unless there happens to be someone who felt the same but was then converted by this production.

Of course, apologies!

For some reason, I always mix 'Orpheus Descending' up with 'Mourning Becomes Electra' (O'Neill).

I lay the blame with Helen Mirren for appearing in both in the early 00's. 

We're in Tom's mind as he conjures memories. Depending on your taste that may allow the style - the sort of delerium and heightened yearning, dreaming and falling short Williams is known for. Tom uses direct address to the audience, and even talks about "the play"; he feels like a stage manager of his own memories. If you're not keen on people stepping to the side and doing some lines on a microphone this may annoy (it's becoming a bit common as a directors' trick) - though here it's mainly used for phone calls, so can be seen as within Tom's play style.

I'm not sure this one's going to win your love!  I fully bought the behaviour and speech as real and heartfelt, but you've got to get drawn in first.

Good the trailer is actual footage anyway.  Most trailers seem to be adverts that don't let you see the play (or they give visuals only) - probably because they can't draw us in first, which is risky for them.