I’m Disappointed but not Discouraged!

Aside

That phrase – used by Tennessee Williams in his play ‘The Glass Menagerie’ – will resonate with all writers attempting to get their manuscript published. He had – in spades - the diligence and tenacity every writer needs. Born in 1911 he had a rough childhood, with a father who was often drunk and sometimes violent, and who called his eldest son ‘Miss Nancy’. He attended the University of Missouri but his father insisted he should do his bit to get the family through the Depression and whilst Tom (his real name) was working at a shoe factory he started to write plays to alleviate the boredom. At 24 he had a nervous breakdown and recuperated with his grandparents who later supported him financially, so he could continue his education.

Whilst he was studying play writing at Iowa University he learned that his sister Rose, a sufferer of nervous ailments, had had a frontal lobotomy which left her with the mind of a young child. Tom changed his name to Tennessee and went to New York where he wrote his first one- act play. It closed at the end of an out- of -town run in Boston.

In 1942 he went to Hollywood; he was exempt from war service because of a heart condition, and offered a film outline ‘Portrait of a Girl in Glass’ which was rejected by MGM. So he turned it into a stage play; initially entitled ‘The Gentleman Caller’ and which ended up as ‘The Glass Menagerie.’ This was the play we went to see on Saturday in Bath.

It is a new production of the autobiographical play and has been lauded for its ‘high comedy and superb ensemble acting.’ I blinked when I read ‘high comedy’.

I have to come clean and tell you what I think.

Brenda Blethyn, an Oscar nominated actress plays the mother and also has been highly praised for her work. The daughter is clearly based on Rose and the son is Tom himself. The fourth character is a gentleman caller. In brief the mother is a faded southern belle who once famously entertained 17 gentlemen callers in a single afternoon. Her ambition now is to see her physically damaged, wallflower daughter receive a suitor and she bludgeons her son Tom to arrange a visit. The fourth character is the gentleman caller.

In my opinion high comedy has no place in this play. Excellent actress that she undoubtedly is BB is no faded southern belle. Like Dame Maggie Smith she has a distinctive voice which can either enhance a performance or become an irritant. Combined with an English version of a southern accent I found it to be the latter. The first act was very noisy and not the play I remembered. In the second act it got better and when the daughter and the gentleman caller were alone on stage it was sublime. I was totally engaged – hanging on every word and gasping when she stumbled in his arms and when he carelessly broke her precious glass unicorn. When they were about to kiss I stopped breathing. This was Tom’s play – haunting and lyrical and not being played for laughs.

The set, effects and music were all good. I must say that I am a lone voice; critics and audiences seem to be unanimous in their praise but I look back on Tom’s life and it sure wasn’t a barrel of laughs. Tom was played by Mark Arends and Laura and Jim were most beautifully played by Emma Hamilton and Andrew Langtree.