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Solid telling of a fragile tale
The happy Highbury team with a worrying play.
Director Rob Phillips
(centre)
wirh Oliver Leonard,
Mark Nattrass, Elena Serafinas and Kirsten Farrell. The Glass Menagerie Highbury Theatre Centre Sutton Coldfield **** ROB PHILLIPS’S studio production of this
Tennessee Williams classic from 1944 is one that tests the miming skills
of the company and the imagination of the audience. The only props it employs are cigarettes, a
candelabrum and the collection of little glass animals that feature in
the title. As far as everything else is concerned, this is pretend time.
Patrons are required to visualise newspapers, wineglasses, pillows,
chewing gum, photographs, cutlery, plates, a meal, a telephone, a
tablecloth, a pen and the door – to name a few examples. In the circumstances, it seemed a shame that all
those little ornaments are disported so obviously: I would have loved to
have told you that there is also an imaginary menagerie – especially as
it is so difficult to mention if there’s a Thursday in the week.
This is a venture that draws excellent
performances from its cast of four. The menagerie belongs to Laura,
heartwarmingly depicted by Kirsten Farrell as the introverted, painfully
shy young woman who has inevitably missed out on the “gentlemen callers”
whom her mother is stridently desperate for her to meet. Mother is Elena Serafinas – splendidly assertive,
making full use of that voice of hers, especially in a high-decibel
confrontation with Tom, Laura’s brother, confidently played by Oliver
Leonard as he demonstrates that he is not prepared to go down without a
fight. Mark Nattrass is Jim, the man who was a schoolboy
hero of his peers, among whom were Tom and Laura. Tom introduces him to
Mother and Laura – who lost her heart to him at school but of course did
not let him suspect a thing. When he and Laura are left alone, we see her coming gently, painfully, out of her shell, while he evinces the tenderness that is needed to help her on a difficult path to face a man for whom her feelings are as strong as ever. This is a difficult scene, one that cannot be rushed. It is beautifully played and it strings us along, haplessly hooked as we wait in hope for the happy ending. To 26-02-11 John Slim |
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