The Glass Menagerie

"The play is memory, and being a memory play, it is sentimental, it is dimly lit, it is not realistic."

The problem about writing about the theatre is the danger of sounding...well, like a "luvvie" i guess. So, starting off, we're going to counter that possibly by being swift and brutal. Francesca Annis chews the scenery like there's no tomorrow in The Gate's version of Tennesse Williams' play. It's not pleasant to watch, by any stretch of the imagination. If you like to keep your ham for your Sunday lunch, then stay away from D.1. The flip side of this is that the quiet understatement of two characters; Laura and Tom, shines through as a result these histrionics.

The most interesting aspect of this production are the allegories that can be drawn with modern America. The fork roads that was 1940s USA that is represented in The Glass Menagerie has its parallels in the reign of George Bush Jr. over the last eight years. Jim (The Gentleman caller) can be seen to represent big business, and the expansion of the economy: despite working in a position not much higher than Tom, he still harbours hopes of striking out on his own, and setting up a successful company. It is this spirit of entrepreneurship that has underpinned the "American Dream", and which America is going to have to rely on in the future, as large multinationals leave the country for China, or other places of cheap labour.

Tom, on the other hand, is also searching for the adrenaline rush associated with the American dream, but his search is taking him away from commerce, and into a dilemma. Tom's nickname in the factory where both he and Jim work is "Shakespeare". He admits himself that not only is he is consistently writing, but that there is a "fire inside him". Towards the end of the play, he feels that literature is not the way to quench the fire, but joining the army.

Therefore, Williams leaves us with three questions, that in an election year, seem all the more pertinent:

Art,commerce, or military?

To return to the start, and a reminder. The Glass Menagerie is a memory play, it is sentimental. Tom can't decide which of the three choices he wants to go with, and instead becomes a drifter. As a result we see him at the end of the play pining for the sister he had left behind in an idealised home (country?) that now only exists in his memory.