Unfolding through the memories of Tom Wingfield as narrator, Tom and his family live in a tenement apartment in St Louis. Amanda, his mother, an overbearing, manipulative woman pines for her past as a popular Southern belle and is embittered over her husband’s desertion of the family 16 years earlier. Laura, Tom’s older sister, is a painfully introverted girl who finds joy in her collection of glass animals and not much else. Laura has a limp which has caused her to retreat further from the outside world. Tom supports his family by working by day at a shoe factory; at night he writes poetry.
Tom, wanting to run away, has joined the Merchant Marines on the sly. Amanda wants to see her daughter married so she will be financially secure. She pushes Tom into inviting a gentleman from the shoe factory over to dinner to introduce him to Laura. The gentleman caller turns out to be the boy Laura had a crush on in high school. Although Laura is nearly paralyzed by this discovery, Jim engages her in conversation and just as Laura is coming out of her shell, Jim announces he is to be married—to someone else—crushing both Amanda and Laura’s hopes. Amanda confronts Tom for his failure to produce a viable gentleman caller and a horrible argument ensues. Tom storms out of the house, never to return.
This production, directed by Kevin Hagan, makes the most of a very small space. The audience sits so close to the stage that they feel as if they’re actually sitting in the story as Tom talks to them. The set is the living room of the apartment, dressed in appropriately shabby furniture and dim lighting. The lighting created by Shelley Holland is reminiscent of film noir. The menagerie is down stage left, spotlit, almost a character as well. Tom sits in the shadows of the fire escape reading until the plays begins. The lighting on the stage changes to a hazy dimness recalling the smoke of dreams, whenever Tom is recalling events.
The actors create their characters with amazing believability. Linda Reiter, as Amanda, engenders the domineering mother with a genteel veneer stripped away as her frustration with her family’s failures overwhelms her. She also displays the fragile emotions of a woman who thought her life would turn out differently.
David Dastmalchian gives us a Tom who reflects all the emotions of his life; rebellion, self-loathing, insecurity, and desperation. His need to get away is depicted as a physical disability-it beats him down and the slump of his shoulders admits his defeat.
Laura (Allison Batty), the peacemaker of the family, is sad but displays a strength of character that allows her to persevere, even under her mother’s thumb. She moves through the production with an expression of angelic peace, her limp almost insignificant until she feels cornered, as in the scene where she finds out the gentleman caller is her old crush.
Mike Falevits is capable as Jim, the gentleman caller, nervous and tense but with a simple motivation to help Laura see her way out of her shell.
Tom says at the beginning, “In memory everything is set to music.” Laura plays her father’s classical Victrola records because they calm her but also because they remind her of him. The dance hall music says “See there are happy people out there,” creating an ironic backdrop to the unhappiness in the Wingfield household. Mr. Hagen also chose to use the “magic slides” as indicated in William’s original play script. Lines of dialogue are flashed on the back wall of the apartment at strategic moments setting up the scenes to come and adding to the imagery of the memories in Tom’s head.
In the end, Laura haunts Tom as the representative of his failure to be a good son and brother. “Blow out your candles, Laura,” he begs her so he can move on. In this production, Laura looks peaceful as she blows out the candles, but the audience is left wondering, is this just Tom’s hope reflected in his mind’s eye?
