‘Glass Menagerie’ Leaves Us
With Lots To Think About
By Charlie McMeekin

Early in the performance of "The Glass Menagerie," currently at Montpelier’s Lost Nation Theater, Tom Wingfield promises to "give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion." And for the next two hours, audience members are treated to plenty of illusions, all designed to explore troubling and thoughtful insights into human nature in this Tennessee Williams classic.

It’s the 1930s, and the United States is mired in the Great Depression, looking forward to the day it rediscovers its strength, and looking back on former glories, struggling to keep alive the American Dream.

Thus it is with the Wingfield family. Amanda Wingfield, the matriarch, has been abandoned by her husband, a "telephone man who fell in love with long distance," and is left with her two children, Tom and Laura. Janis Stevens, who plays Amanda, is the perfect stereotype of a Southern woman, overpowering in her charm and wiles. She confesses to being "bewildered by life," a vulnerable reflection for a woman who is so manic in her energy. She inadvertently describes herself when she speaks of a dance hall, "the Jewel Box", as a "big glass house where they raise tropical flowers." Amanda is a hothouse flower, demanding constant attention, and unable to handle changes in environment.

Amanda’s son Tom is trapped in a dead end job at a warehouse, boxing shoes. He dreams of escape, but his responsibilities as the family breadwinner keep him tied down. Every night he escapes reality by going to the movies, wryly observing that "people go to the movies instead of moving."

And Tom does not move. He is funny and cynical, but stuck, content to blame his failures on his situation rather than his response to it. Christopher Reiling plays a marvelously fluid Tom, capable of big emotions, but incapable of owning them. They come and they go, and they do not change him. He remains, to the end, "always chasing rainbows", and never finding gold.

Laura, Amanda’s daughter, is the only one whose handicap is physical, and therefore somewhat indisputable. Laura has a bad leg, although director Peter Sander and actress Laura Bozzone seemed to deliberately choose to make even this illusory, as at times it’s obvious and awkward, while at others it seems to disappear. The effect of this forces us to look deeper at this young woman who lives in a world of her own, of little glass animals. She plays old phonograph records, and that’s about it." Laura is crippled, but perhaps more by her reaction to her handicap than by the leg itself.

The action rises when Tom announces he’s bringing a gentleman caller home for dinner. It’s his response to Amanda’s desire to have Laura cultivate gentleman friends with an eye toward marriage and security.

The visitor is Jim, a man whom Laura has admired from afar since she met him in high school and he nicknamed her "Blue Roses". This realization threatens to shatter Laura’s fragile calm, and when Jim arrives she becomes physically ill and lies fetal on the daybed, her lame foot twitching spasmodically.

But it is Jim who comes in, sits with her, and slowly pulls her out of her cocoon. He invites her to dance, and when she protests that she might step on him, he reminds her that he’s not "made of glass". Jim, played by Jeremy Benson, is the only character connected to the present. He knows that "people aren’t so dreadful when you get to know them," and that many people are "just as disappointed as you are." But he points out the difference between being disappointed and being discouraged. And it is the lack of courage which keeps the Wingfield family in their glass menagerie, forever chasing illusory bits of rainbows.

Lost Nation’s production is strong and poignant, and when combined with the power of Williams’ script, leaves the viewer with much to think about on the ride home. There are myriad threads to follow and images to explore, providing an experience which lasts long after the final curtain.

On a personal and parochial note, it was a thrill to see Randolph resident Emily Crosby’s name in the program. Actually, she was listed as Sarah Menard, but it’s really Emily, who is serving as the show’s master electrician!

"The Glass Menagerie" plays through June 8 at the City Hall Auditorium in Montpelier. Showtimes are 7 p.m. on Thursdays and Sundays, and 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. LNT’s first production this year, "To Kill a Mockingbird," played to full houses its final weekend as word of mouth spread, so it would be wise to "get while the getting‚ is good"! Reservations can be made by calling 229-0492.