Review: Cast portrays a variety of emotions in classic play

Amanda, played by Lauren Fylan (left) engages in a verbal crossfire with Tom, played by Corey Cedarleaf, in "The Glass Menargerie." The play opens tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the Studio Theater.

As the lines flew and the tension rose and fell at the dress rehearsal Wednesday, the four actors of “The Glass Menagerie” gave Tennessee Williams’ Depression-era play an angsty yet enjoyable feel.
The first character you meet is Tom (played by Corey Cedarleaf), the narrator, who is a young man employed at a warehouse.  The play opens with Tom’s soliloquy, delivered in nostalgic yet detached tones that set the stage for rest of the performance.
Following the soliloquy, Amanda (played by Lauren Fylan), the single mother of Tom and Laura(played by Lyndsea Moore) enters, followed by Laura, a young woman who has a foot defect and is terribly shy.
The whole first act of the play is centered on the problems within the family, mainly Amanda’s problems with her two children.  Fylan plays Amanda as a flustered and beleaguered housewife who is forever trying to push her less ambitious offspring into success: whether it’s pushing Tom to become a shipping clerk at the warehouse or Laura into finally receiving a gentleman caller.
Laura meanwhile spends most of her time shut away with her collection of glass figurines, called the glass menagerie by her mother, or playing old classical records left behind by their father. The father is described as a telephone company employee who is said to have “fallen in love with long distance.” He deserted the family and is now travelling the world with a portrait acting as his only presence in their home.
Moore plays Laura as a painfully shy and awkward young lady who is forever doubting herself and cowering from the tempest that is her mother.  Such is Amanda’s waspish fury that the only character capable of standing up to her is Tom, who is prone to angst-ridden outbursts that tend to end with him departing for the movies, his one solace from family and work.
This continues in a cycle with Tom and Amanda raging at one another while Laura cowers and swoons with belle-like abandon until Tom agrees to provide Laura, and to some extent Amanda, with a gentleman caller from the warehouse.
The gentleman caller, Jim (played by Alex Bans), is the final character in the play and turns out to have been something of prodigy in high school, where Laura nursed a sweet-spot for him.  Bans plays Alex with a swaggering bravado that belies the character’s newfound confidence excavated from a public speaking class.
As a whole, the cast does well with getting across their characters’ mental and emotional states: ranging from frail and worn out in the case of Laura and Tom to the strident ambition of Amanda and the oblivious assuredness of Jim.

However, each member did slip up on their lines a few times, though in the case of everyone but Bans and Cedarleaf, it added to the character: the franticness of Fylan’s Amanda contrasting with the timidity of Moore’s Laura.

Cedarleaf slipped on his lines the least so as to be barely noticeable, but Bans was at times choppy in his delivery, which may have been an effort to induce a general dislike of Jim, which the audience will sense during the climax of the performance.
Small line slip-ups aside, the play is really a treat to savor, especially for those who enjoy awkwardness and tension, which at times is thick enough for the proverbial knife to cut through it.  The set is simply done and the period music mixed in to add another level of emotion.  The costumes are also nicely done so as to add to the period feel of the play, as are the props, which include several cigarettes for the male characters to alternately smoke or fondle absentmindedly during monologues.
As the cast lines up for the curtain call, the audience is bound to find itself sated by the performance of “The Glass Menagerie” if not a little more world-weary, by the ardently tense performance.

Advocate Staff