Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 3, 1990 TAG: 9003032730
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRIS GLADDEN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Its newest production, which opened Friday after preview performances Wednesday and Thursday, is Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie."
The play that brought Williams to prominence is certainly one of the most important works in the American theater. Partly biographical, it packs a powerful emotional punch tempered by Williams' keen wit. It's a humor that simmers well below the surface of the story's poignancy, but for some reason it boiled disconcertingly to the surface during the second act of Thursday's preview performance.
This play full of longing and heartbreak is not built for belly laughs, but belly laughs it got, and it didn't seem to be the fault of the production. The Mill Mountain production is completely commendable. It's a well-mounted show, convincingly acted and accented by some completely appropriate original music from the local group No Strings Attached.
However, in the second act, I thought I had wandered into the wrong play. Unfortunately for him, Clif Morts seemed to have served as the catalyst. Morts is a talented actor who distinguished himself on the Mill Mountain stage in "The Dropper." Here, he turns in a good, realistic performance as the "gentleman caller" on whom the Wingfields pin all their hopes. Morts plays him as a very ordinary guy who handles social situations by laughing a lot. Maybe this character trait served as a kind of laugh track, cuing the audience into some rollicking responses. I was kind of mystified by the audience reaction and I believe the performers were as well.
At the very beginning, the character of Tom informs the audience that the "gentleman caller" is an element of realism in an otherwise stylistic story and Morts fulfills this description. Tom, his mother and his physically handicapped sister are poeticized characters orbiting in their own universe of vague dreams and gentle despair. Neither the actors nor director Mary Best-Bova have any reason to apologize.
Jayne Heller is Amanda, the talkative, suffocating old-South mother who irritates her son and daughter with endless tales of the old days. Heller's is a robust approach and she makes Amanda a domineering mother to be reckoned with. Roger Mangels plays Tom, the son who wants to escape his family, with a little less bitterness than some actors. The approach is successful and Tom is more sympathetic in this production than in some others.
Kathryn Kelley pitches the character of Laura, the destructively shy and crippled young woman, perfectly. The image that she creates of Laura's fragility must be exactly what Williams had in mind.
John Sailer's sets are effective and Best-Bova has approached the show with respect to its stature, giving audiences a chance to see this great play in a laudatory production that doesn't tamper with the material.
It continues through March 25 at Mill Mountain Theatre at Center in the Square. For information and reservations, call 342-5740.
by CNB