Amanda and Tom dominate Act I, but the play’s crucial scenes happen in Act II, when Tom—at his mother’s insistence—brings home a “gentleman caller” named Jim (Brandon McCoy) to introduce to his sister. It turns out that Laura knew Jim in high school and had a secret crush on him; over the course of their evening together she moves from terror to hope to elation to disappointment … and her response to this disappointment has always been for me the play’s greatest mystery: Will it be the final blow that crushes her spirit or the turning point in her life, an unlocked reservoir from which to draw new strength? Demuth traces Laura’s journey from beat to beat with masterful precision—one’s heart leaps and falls with hers—yet at the final curtain I was no closer to solving the mystery. The not-knowing is heartbreaking, and I realized in that moment my suffering was Tom’s.
As for the gentleman caller, McCoy is a revelation. Williams describes Jim as a “nice, ordinary young man,” but the ordinary man possesses a very healthy ego, and his frequent boasts would be maddening did we not see him through Laura’s adoring eyes. McCoy and Demuth generate such electricity, I left the theater convinced Jim had felt it too—that he is not merely “nice” to Laura out of pity, nor even touched by her delicate beauty, but genuinely, powerfully attracted to her, making his inevitable choice all the more painful.
The Glass Menagerie was my favorite Tennessee Williams play even before this production—compared to the operatic A Streetcar Named Desire, I found its apparent simplicity more poignant and truthful. Without sacrificing poignancy or truth, Stebbins and company have revealed the extent to which that simplicity is an illusion. They have given this rich, compelling play the production it deserves.
The Glass Menagerie is playing at Rep Stage, located on the campus of Howard Community College at 10901 Little Patuxent Parkway in Columbia, on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7 P.M., Fridays at 8 P.M., Saturdays at 2 P.M. and 8 P.M., and Sundays at 2 P.M. and 7 P.M., through March 14th. Tickets are $18-$30; Wednesday performances are designated pay-what-you-can. For more information, call 410-772-4900 or visit www.repstage.org.
