Tennessee Williams described this, his most autobiographical play, as 'a quiet play' and in many ways it is. The pain and suffering of the three main characters is for the most part kept under the surface, only occasionally bursting out in passionate explosions.
In this production, originally from Manchester Royal Exchange and now at Richmond Theatre, it is these outbursts which work best. Amanda and Tom's fight near the end of Act One is dramatic and powerful. You have to sympathise with both of them, completely understanding how their situation is tearing them both apart and seeing at the same time that there is no possible solution as they want such opposing things. And yet they clearly love one another. As they verbally batter each other, Laura cowers in the corner, horrified by what is going on until at the climax of the argument Tom throws his coat down and almost smashes her precious little glass animals. When she screams you know it is not only the glass animals she is trying to protect.
       But these moments are rare. Overall, Braham Murray's production misses the poetry and the pathos of this great play. Tom is a little too light and joky; it's hard to believe the fate of his sister (who in real life was one of the first people to have a lobotomy performed on her) is tearing at his heart. He tries a little too hard to be entertaining and his accent gets the better of him from time to time.
       Brenda Blethyn has some of Amanda's eccentricity but she is too earthy to be truly believable as an ex flighty southern belle. Her accent is extremely good but her voice becomes tiring to listen to she somehow seems to achieve a rising and falling monotone. One has to feel that Laura is completely overwhelmed by what is expected of her, i.e. to be the flirty mancatcher that her mother was before her. But here we feel that Amanda is inventing her gentleman callers and Laura almost laughs at her rather than being in awe of her.
       Emma Hamilton's Laura also has a lot of the right notes and she looks perfect but again she misses the extreme vulnerability of Laura. We can see she is disappointed when the gentleman caller leaves and it is obviously sad, but this is actually her only chance, it has to be more than a little sad. In the long scene between Laura and the gentleman caller there are some beautiful moments but too much inspires laughter of the wrong kind. It's difficult these days to avoid this when audiences are so desperately keen to laugh but it can and should be done when the fate of the play demands it.
       Andrew Langtree's Jim is almost spot-on, just a little too overbearing at times and not quite spontaneous enough in his wooing of Laura to believe he got completely carried away. He brings a nice spark of reality to the play, as intended, and his accent is also very good.
       Simon Higlett's set is lovely and works perfectly although the extreme rake occasionally seemed to cause a little trouble for the actors.
       There are lots of nice touches and much to appreciate but this Glass Menagerie never comes close to breaking your heart.
Francine Brody