How do you solve a problem like Laura Wingfield? You know, a painfully shy agoraphobic who’s far more an emotional cripple than an actual one?
Through 2008 eyes, every which way except the only one that her unwittingly cruel mother had available to her in Depression-era St. Louis: Marry her off to any man who will have her. Short of that, the girl’s doomed to a fate worse than a Chekhovian sister.
If only Amanda had Title IX, yoga, a bottle of Prozac or even an hour on Oprah’s “go-girl” couch, maybe Tennessee Williams wouldn’t have been haunted decades later by a real-life sister committed for having a poisoned self-perception.
But then we wouldn’t have “The Glass Menagerie,” his groundbreaking departure from all convention in stage realism. Williams believed expressionism could better help an audience arrive at real truth. “The Glass Menagerie” is “theater of the mind,” an homage to the poetic license of memory, expressed through exaggerated amalgams of sound, lighting and facts.
Paragon Theatre is staging a competent, yet intentionally confounding stab at Williams’ wicket. At first blanch, it comes off as a simple and faithful staging. But upon closer inspection, it’s a fairly rebellious interpretation that regrettably, doesn’t go all the way in its anarchy. And that keeps it from arriving at the final emotional pathos this piece demands.
Williams stipulates that certain aspects of the storytelling are to be suggested rather than actually depicted. For example, the family eats dinner without real food or utensils. Director Warren Sherrill takes that scripted device much further by eliminating all but the most essential props. Everything from the record player to the yearbook to the photo of the grinning father whose abandonment is what turned this apartment into a psych ward. And, yes, the famous menagerie of clear glass animals that provides Laura her only comfort in this cold, cruel world.
Wait, what? A “Glass Menagerie” without a glass menagerie? Yep, and all the resulting pantomiming does start to look a little silly after a while. But there is a justification: Our memories have holes in them. Laura is as invisible and useless as her glass animals. So why not present the entire play with the same transparency?
If only Sherrill went all the way with it. But the candelabra is real, because you can’t end with Laura blowing out fake candles. So, too, the enormous brace on Laura’s leg that makes her look like a monster.
The girl’s actual, scripted deformity is simply that one leg is slightly shorter than the other. Williams even says the effect need not be more than suggested onstage. This becomes vital when the gentleman caller tells Laura that her defect is enormous only in her own mind. But it’s seriously enormous here. It’s not debilitating, just an inconsistency.
Paragon has again assembled an estimable cast — the peerless Martha Harmon Pardee as Amanda, the uprooted, aging belle who symbolizes the crumbling South in St. Louis; Michael Stricker as Tom, the ambiguously gay narrator recalling the double-life of his youth; his real-life wife Barbra Andrews as Laura; and an effective Josh Hartwell as the jock of her high-school dreams.
These four are the real deal. But despite their fine work, there’s a cumulative disconnect to it. There’s a cautious tentativeness throughout that may be intentional, or may be a sign of a cast still seeking its truth.
Either way, there are many curiously unrealized moments. For example, imagine the pendulum of emotion Laura experiences in a two-minute span when she dances with a boy, is told she is pretty, and is kissed on the mouth — all for the first time — and just as quickly is told this man is engaged?
Andrews plays it all in a kind of frightened paralysis. But if we can’t see the cruelty of hope on her face, we certainly can’t then see the wounds that are re-opened when Jim follows Pa Wingfield out that door, leaving a (fake) glass crypt behind.
It comes across as a very competent, but passive tragedy. Paragon’s not known for going easy on its audiences’ emotions. But so far, it’s holding back.
“The Glass Menagerie” *** (out of four stars)
Presented by Paragon Theatre at the Crossroads Theater, 2590 Washington St. Written by Tennessee Williams. Directed by Warren Sherrill. Through Nov. 15. 2 hours, 30 minutes. 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays. $17-$19. 303-300-2210 or .
This week’s theater opening
“Happy Days” A key component of Fort Collins’ two-week “The Beckett Project” is Bas Bleu Theatre founder and artistic director Wendy Ishii’s return to her signature role as Winnie in “Happy Days.” Embedded up to her waist in the center of a mound of earth in the blazing sun, Winnie’s opening observation “Another heavenly day!” sets a precisely Beckettian tone for this frightening yet absurdly funny portrayal. Through Sunday. 401 Pine St., Fort Collins, 970-498-8949 or
Upcoming theater closings
Saturday, Oct. 25: Arvada Center’s “Les Miserables”
Saturday, Oct. 25: Denver Center Theatre Company’s “The Trip to Bountiful” (at the Space Theatre)
Saturday, Oct. 25: Listen Productions’ “DNC Mediamockracy” (at Buntport Theater)
Saturday, Oct. 25: Carousel Dinner Theatre’s “The Producers” Fort Collins
Saturday, Oct. 25: Theatre Group’s “Some Men”
Saturday, Oct. 25:Theatre Company of Lafayette’s “The Jollies”
Sunday, Oct. 26: National tour, “The Drowsy Chaperone” (Buell Theatre)
Sunday, Oct. 26: Town Hall Arts Center’s “The Full Monty” Littleton
Sunday, Oct. 26: Sunday: Jesters Dinner Theatre’s “I Do, I Do” Longmont
Sunday, Oct. 26: Sunday: Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center’s “Biloxi Blues”
Sunday, Oct. 26: Miners Alley Playhouse’s “Summertree” Golden
Sunday, Oct. 26: Next Stage’s “Mr. Marmalade” (at the Aurora Fox)
Sunday, Oct. 26: openstage etc.’s “The Oldest Profession” Fort Collins
Oct. 31: Gaslight’s “Blithe Spirit” Westminster
Nov. 1: Thin Air Theatre’s “Frankenstein of Cripple Creek” Cripple Creek
Nov. 1: Adams Mystery Playhouse’s “Welcome . . . to Murder Mortuary”
Nov. 1:Bovine Metropolis’ “Bovanity Fair”
Nov. 1: Denver Center Theatre Company’s “Noises Off” (at the Stage Theatre)
Nov. 1: Shadow’s “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone”
Nov. 1: Bug Theatre’s “Night of the Living Dead”
Nov. 1: Backstage’s “The Mystery of Irma Vep” Breckenridge
Nov. 2: Hunger Artists’ “Haunted” (at Byers-Evans House)
Nov. 2: Vintage Theatre’s “Murderers”
Nov. 2: Festival Playhouse’s “It was a Dark and Stormy Night” Arvada
— Compiled by John Moore
Complete theater listings
Go to our complete list of every currently running production in Colorado, including summaries, run dates, addresses, phones and links to every company’s home page.
