The Glass Menagerie

Assured beauty, delicate and deep. A fitting appraisal from CATHERINE AIREY.

Catherine Airey Corpus Playroom John Haidar laura batey Mateo Oxley sold out Tennessee Williams victoria ball

Corpus Playroom, 8th-12th November, £6-5

Dir. John Haidar

[rating:4/5]

Corpus’ much-vaunted intimacy is ideal for The Glass Menagerie.

It’s impossible to realise Tennessee Williams’ elaborately-imagined sets in such a confined space. Instead, Tom Wingfield’s movement from the outside world (his present) into the enclosed isolated family circle (his past) was artfully effected by having Mateo Oxley seated in the audience at the beginning of the play before moving onto the stage.

Oxley’s rendering of the play as memory and of Tom’s double life was remarkably convincing given the lack of space he had to work with. Adopting a specific register when addressing the audience, but without ever totally separating himself from the domestic scene, he enabled the character to move seamlessly between memory and present.

Victoria Ball and Laura Batey as Amanda and Laura Wingfield were also impressive. Too often have these characters been portrayed as smothering mother and wimpish daughter. Here however, were actresses who understood the subtlety and ambiguity of Williams’ work.

Yes, Ball’s Amanda was loud and obnoxious – she is supposed to be – but her tone did vary; there was also incredible warmth in her performance, relating a genuine love for Tom and Laura. It was right that at times we felt pity for this single mother and faded Southern belle, clinging uselessly to her past.

But by far the best performance of the night was Batey’s Laura. This is a role that can easily go wrong; Laura has very few lines and must therefore express herself through subtle reactions. Batey understood Laura perfectly. Her voice quiet-but-audible, she rarely made eye contact with other actors on stage, and her body language was appropriately withdrawn. As delicate as her glass figures.

Unfortunately, Will Karani’s Jim was lacking in comparison. He simply didn’t possess the charm or likeability necessary for the audience to warm to his character. Instead he came across as crass, and his jokes fell flat. I have it in me to forgive Jim for leading Laura on, but Karani didn’t give the emotional intensity for this to happen – instead he seemed a bit heartless.

Though this hardly mattered in light of the rest of the play. Haidar was wise not to change much of the script, and, what he did alter worked well. It was an interesting decision to scrap Laura’s leg brace. For me, this added to the play’s starkness. It was only as the play progressed that I spotted Laura walking with a limp; we were allowed to notice rather than having the fact forced upon us.

Chrystal Ding’s jarring, haunting music also deserves a mention. The repetition of the ‘Glass Menagarie Theme’ captured the sense of claustrophobic family life, and its appearance never interrupted the action on stage.

Whilst Haidar’s faithful production of this Williams’ classic was not greatly ambitious, it was strikingly performed. At the end Oxley managed real tears.

On our way out, a man behind me publicly resolved to go and read the play, along with Streetcar and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. This is good advice, and an excellent achievement for any show to have prompted it. This run has already sold out, and the clever pre-bookers among you won’t be disappointed.