Madison Ferris, Sally Field, and Joe Mantello

                                                                            (PHOTOs: JULIETA CERVANTES)

 

                by Deirdre Donovan

 

 

The Glass Menagerie is Tennessee Williams’ gentlest play.  But with Sam Gold at the helm, it gets quality of a Midwest prairie stretching into an unknown horizon.

 

Whether you like it or not will depend much on your aesthetic taste, tolerance for experimental theater, and willingness to embrace an American classic without its clichés.  In short, this isn’t your grandmother’s Glass Menagerie.  It isn’t cozy, cuddly, or easily digested. 

 

No question it will grab you from the get go.  Joe Mantello, who plays the Narrator and the character Tom, materializes on stage, wearing a simple t-shirt and grey pants, to deliver the mesmerizing Prologue. “Yes, I have tricks in my pocket, I have things up my sleeve. But I am the opposite of a stage magician. He gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth. I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion.” 

 

Although Mantello may well be the oldest actor ever to play this filial role, he manages to pull it off convincingly with his trim physique and his sheer stage charisma.  In fact, Mantello’s Tom is the one who sets the poetic tone of the play and invites the audience to watch the domestic world of the Wingfield family unfold and take its tragic shape.

 

For those who need a refresher on the plot, here it is in a nutshell.  Set in St. Louis during the Great Depression, a faded Southern belle Amanda Wingfield supports her two adult children Tom and Laura, who have never been able to break free of her tyrannical grip.  The mother, obsessed with finding a husband for her “crippled” daughter Laura (who devotes most of her time to polishing the titular “glass menagerie”), has Tom invite his best friend Jim to dinner one evening, in hopes that sparks might ignite between Laura and Jim.  When things don’t go as planned, we get a revealing look at the dysfunctional Wingfield clan and the layered psyches of all four characters.

 

The acting is sturdy with a couple of standout performances.  Sally Fields is commanding as the Wingfield matriarch, insisting her children become “successes”, in spite of the bleak fiscal realities of the ‘30s.  Fields’ Mother isn’t an unsympathetic character but she does come across at times as unhinged, especially in the dinner scene when she enters in a pink cotillion dress that might have flattered her decades ago but now makes her look like a desperate woman clutching for bygone youth.  Fields, whose Southern accent sounds affected early on, gains a more natural cadence here as she coquettishly chats with the Gentleman Caller Jim.  If you need fresh proof that Fields is one of our finest living actresses, you must see her latest turn as Amanda.

 

 

The other standout is Mantello.  Although unconventionally cast as the Narrator/poet Tom who works in the warehouse, he nails his role by showing his character’s artistic detachment and caring heart in continual dramatic tension.  Yes, he’s determined to escape his mother’s trap of becoming his sister’s permanent caretaker.  But his Tom isn’t heartless or a mirror-image of his absent father who deserted the family long ago.  Mantello’s Tom is no “hello-goodbye” guy.  But he does have a strong sense of survival.

 

The remaining cast members, Madison Ferris and Finn Wittrock, acquit themselves well.  Ferris, who has muscular dystrophy in real-life, brings a different interpretation to the “crippled” Laura.  Actresses who have played this iconic role in the past typically affect a limp.  But Madison, when not in her wheelchair, nimbly maneuvers herself jack-knife style across the stage, with her hands and feet planted on the stage and derriere in the air.  If last season’s actress in Spring Awakening got kudos for being the first physically-challenged actress to use a wheelchair on stage, Ferris, with similar physical limitations, becomes the first one to show that she can act in—and out—of her wheelchair.  Say what you will, this actress has tons of guts and goes the full distance here. 

 

·                     Finn Wittrock and Madison Ferris

 

Last but not least, Finn Wittrock is ideal as the Gentleman Caller Jim O’Connor.  Wittrock’s Jim is the ordinary guy who’s got a firm hold on his life and sees the world for what it is.  Although he punctures Amanda Wingfield’s dream of becoming Laura’s beau and husband, he refuses to be a hypocrite and doesn’t sugar-coat reality.

 

Does Gold’s non-traditional interpretation of The Glass Menagerie remain faithful to Williams’ text?  Well, yes and no.  Just as Gold deconstructed Othello earlier this year at the New York Theatre Wing, he now takes creative license with Williams’ text.  Case in point:  William’s Laura plays truant from Rubicam’s Business College, which is eventually discovered by Amanda when she visits the school one day.  Confronted by her mother, Laura confesses that she had embarrassed herself at school by vomiting during a speed typing test and rather than return to school had “been going out walking” to the park or zoo. Given the play’s casting of Ferris in the daughter’s role, “walking” would be physically impossible for Laura—and, yes, it momentarily sounds jarring to the ear.  Okay, Gold pushes the dramatic envelope.  But he never really goes off the deep end.

 

The creative team also departs from conventional staging.  Andrew Lieberman’s capacious set is about as bright and cheery as the entranceway to Carlsbad Caverns.  The stage’s back wall is totally black and the spare props are made-up of modest furniture and a steel cart.  Adam Silverman’s lighting is harsh in many scenes, but it turns downright poetic when Laura and Jim have their heart-to-heart on the stage floor—and it wonderfully enhances their soulful talk.   Wojciech Dziedzic’s costumes are unfussy, with the one exception being Amanda’s pink tulle dress at dinner.  If clothing can speak volumes about a character, this one surely reveals that Amanda is living in the past, those days when she was a popular and much sought-after young woman.

 

No matter how many times you have seen The Glass Menagerie, you should go to this latest revival by Gold.  This is the most unsentimental, stripped-down, and provocative interpretation of the classic ever.  Gold gives a new contemporary voice to William’s autobiographical play.  And, say what you will, it’s unforgettable.

 

Through July 2nd.

At the Belasco Theatre, 111 West 44^th Street, Manhattan.

For tickets and more information, phone 212-239-6200 or visit www.telecharge.com.

Running time:  2 hours and 5 minutes, with no intermission.